These days when I am enjoying the wonderful array of freshly harvested veggies at the grocery store or farmers' market, in the back of my mind I know that I am in search of the ingredients for the meal that will mark the official start of the fall season for me ... soup! Now that summer has finally given up and left (not without a last stand and a fight), the cool days and wonderful colors in the produce section call to me that the time is perfect to put up a pot of that timeless classic and let the aromas bubble out on the back burner as I sit at my desk to work. Who am I kidding? The smell of onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, tomatoes, and who-knows-what-else that I choose to put in to the pot carries me off to a time and place years ago ... my mother's kitchen.
My mother was a firm believer that there was nothing that could not be made better with a pot of soup. Raised in an Italian-American household, there were as many ways to make soup as there were people to eat it. No vegetable that she had ever seen or tasted could not be turned into a tummy-soothing, mouth-watering delight. From the usual to the unusual (how about swiss chard soup in broth with garlic?) soup was the perfect vehicle.
Thinking about my mother's soups got me to thinking also about how every generation everywhere since who-know-when has been making soup. First our hunter-gatherer ancestors, followed by our ancestors who first worked the land, found the making of soups and porridge a healthy meal that not only warmed your belly but allowed them to stretch their store of food over the winter. It almost seems as if Mother Nature invented soup first, then shared the recipe with humans in order to teach them to make the best use of the gifts she grew for us. It must be something in a mother's DNA - the "teach your kid to make soup" gene!
So today on this chilly, rainy autumn day, I am putting up my very first pot of soup for the season. I have chosen to make a lentil vegetable soup that only gets better the longer it simmers. Good thing I wrote this blog before I started the soup or else my mind would have wandered down memory lane again instead of tending to business! Happy soup season everyone!
And so it is.
