Butternut Squash Soup: The Season is Upon Us!

Don’t you love it when you just start to doze? Maybe you meant to take a quick snooze, cuddled under a knitted afghan on the couch. Or maybe it’s on that long, quiet car ride at night when someone else is doing the driving, so you can just drift.

You become aware of the fact that you’re hovering right between asleep and awake, but you can’t focus too much on that fact, or your brain will start to wake up. So you just let your mind wander, let your breathing deepen, and slowly get drawn into sleep.

Autumn is a whole season that sits just on the cusp. The summer shorts and sandals get packed away, but it’s not time to pull out the parka just yet. Autumn is when there’s just enough of a nip in the air in the mornings and evenings to remind you that you need to savour the warm afternoons that much more, because they’re fleeting. Fall is a season dedicated to that cozy, comfy feeling.

It’s also the perfect time to make soup.

Butternut Squash Soup: Homegrown Ingredients

Butternut squash soup is a delicious and hearty choice when the temperature outside starts to drop. And the best part is, you can grow most of the ingredients in your garden!

Now, if you want butternut squash soup from your garden in autumn, you have to think about it in spring. Squash (which is the singular and plural for the plant, but we think the plural should be changed to ‘squish,’ just for fun) needs to be planted after the danger of frost has passed. While they don’t like the cold, they can tolerate dry or wet conditions fairly well, though of course a nice balance of moisture is ideal.

That’s why we recommend you use BigYellowBag Black Garden Soil as your growing medium for squash. It offers a mixture of black loam, peat loam, compost and manure. Loam is a soil type comprised of sand, silt and clay in just the right ratios to allow for drainage while also maintaining moisture. Our soil is also packed with essential nutrients and organic matter.

Growing Butternut Squash

It’s a good idea to give squash plenty of room to grow, spacing your rows 6 to 8 feet apart, and giving the plants 1.5 to 2 feet  between each other. They have a tendency to shade out other plants, so don’t plant your sun-lovin’ tomatoes too close. Also, you don’t want to disturb the squash’s roots, so weed early and often, but do it carefully.

When it comes time to harvest, make sure your squash is fully ripe, with a hard skin. They take about three or four months to fully mature. You can either pull it or cut it from the vine, but either way, it’s a good idea to leave at least an inch of stem on the squash.

Once you have your squash, it’s time to make soup!

Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

1 medium carrot, chopped

2 Tablespoons of butter

1 small onion, chopped

2 medium potatoes, cubed

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed

32 fluid ounces of chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large pot, and then add all of the veggies. Cook for about five minutes, or until lightly browned. Pour in enough stock to cover the veggies, bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer until the vegetables are tender; about 40 minutes. Transfer the soup into a blender and blend until it’s smooth. Return the soup to the pot and mix in more stock until it’s the right consistency for you. Season with the salt and pepper, and serve with a thick slice of crusty bread.