These little orange tomatoes are so yummy, and it’s a good thing, we have an abundance!

We have been getting apples off our trees and have labored over several pots of applesauce.  Then Peter came home with a box from a guy at work…guess what I’ll be doing!

This is whom the kids call “Specialty”,  eventually her specialty will be laying eggs, but so far it has been eating and wandering off  into the road and neighbor’s yards and pooping pretty much everywhere.

This past weekend we took the kids and headed down to Mount St. Helens to camp, we had camped there about ten years ago and thought the kids would really get a kick out of the experience.   It was a lot of work, but all in all I think everyone had a great time.  We learned a lot about the volcano, and I was particularly amazed at how the area has regrown in the ten years since we last visited.

Evie fits right in with nature…she fits it right in her mouth!

Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980

Some facts we learned:

-The eruption leveled 230 square miles of forest in less than 10 minutes.

-The mountain lost 1300 feet of height and .67 cubic miles of volume.

-The eruption began with a massive landslide that buried 14 miles of river valley to an average depth of 150 feet.

-The landslide produced a sideways explosion killing trees up to 17 miles north of the volcano.

-A vertical ash eruption rose to a height of 15 miles above the crater and continued for 9 hours.  In two weeks that ash circled the globe.

-57 people were killed.

Happy Campers.

Our campsite was on the Swift Reservoir, it was beautiful at dusk. (Peter and Evelyn are sitting on a stump in the bottom right.)

On a nature hike.  Ben is really digging this photo opt!

Reaching for the sky!

To see more of our trip feel free to visit my Flickr Photostream.

I love the cooler sunny days of  late August, but what I really love is that the temperature drops just enough to start serving hot soup for dinner again.  The garden is in its prime and that means all the ingredients for this yummy soup.  I love this soup because it can be varied in as many ways as you can think up, and it’s oh so chunky (my husband’s standard for a good soup).

Sausage & Vegetable Soup

makes 9 cups

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

5 cups homemade (or good quality store bought) chicken broth

1 1/4 cup cubed new potatoes

1/2 cup sliced carrot

1/2 cup raw rice

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3 1/4 cups chopped fresh spinach, no stems

12 oz. grass fed beef italian sausage, casings removed,  cooked  until browned and crumbled

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup  raw whole milk (I use half a cup of each instead of using half & half which is homogenized)

Cook onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add water, potatoes, carrot, rice, bouillon, red pepper flakes and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add sausage and spinach; simmer, covered for 2 minutes. Stir in cream and milk; heat through, but do not boil.

Variation:  Diced ham may be added in place of the sausage. Add 1 teaspoon dill weed in place of red pepper flakes.

This post has been a part of Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Wednesday.