Autumn is here

It’s starting to feel like fall—a light fog in the morning, the mountains already a brilliant blue up above, and the air is pleasantly crisp. Whenever I have a moment in the morning, I walk with our daughter part of the way to school, even if it’s just for a few minutes. It’s just wonderful to get outside for a few minutes and get some exercise. It’s different from my daily work. There are already lots of calves frolicking in the barn; peak season in the barn starts for us in November. In the garden, it’s time to harvest the remaining fruit, and to go with that, I have three good, simple recipes that our family really enjoys.

Juliane’s pumpkin soup:

400 g pumpkin, best fresh; if they are young soft pumpkins, you can cut them into cubes with the skin on.

200 g potatoes (peel and also cut into cubes)

500 ml soup or vegetable broth

A bit of ginger (break off a small piece from the whole ginger and in it goes)

250 g onions, finely chopped, or leek, sliced

3 garlic cloves

100 ml cream

Dice the pumpkin, potatoes, onions, and garlic cloves; add them to the vegetable soup along with the whole piece of ginger, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. When the pumpkin and potatoes are tender, purée them with an immersion blender (remove the ginger piece first).

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and garlic powder if desired. Finally, whip the cream and top the garlic soup with the whipped cream as a garnish.

The pumpkin soup tastes best when you top it with a dollop of whipped cream, a dash of fresh pumpkin seed oil, and a few toasted pumpkin seeds. Enjoy your meal.

Covered apple cake from Katharina, a bit different.

200 g margarine or butter

100 g sugar, 4 egg yolks, 300 g flour, 1 packet baking powder, 1 packet vanilla sugar, 1 pinch of salt, 10 tablespoons of milk, 1–1.5 kg of apples, 1/8 liter of cider, wine, or water, possibly 2–3 tablespoons of sugar for the apples if they are sour, 4 egg whites, 150 g sugar.

Preparation: Cream the butter, sugar, and egg yolks until fluffy; alternately add the flour, baking powder, and milk; bake on a baking sheet at 180 degrees until almost done. Meanwhile, grate the apples while stirring (not too finely), or cut them into thin slices, and briefly sauté them with wine or water and, if desired, sugar.

Beat the egg whites with sugar until stiff. When the cake base is lightly browned, remove it from the oven, spread the blanched apples on top, and spread the meringue over them on the baking sheet. Then return it to the oven briefly and bake until the meringue is light brown. Enjoy! This cake is very moist. If you have a few egg whites left over from other recipes, feel free to whip more than 4 egg whites if you’d like a thicker meringue topping.

Katharina, the farmer’s wife from the Zittrauerhof, wishes you all the best. Enjoy your meal.

Tip: If you’d like to make a pumpkin soup in winter, you can also cut the pumpkin into cubes and freeze it, best vacuum-sealed.