Autumn is here

Autumn is here – a light mist in the morning, everything already bright blue up on the mountains and a pleasant, fresh air – if there’s any time in the morning I accompany our daughter a bit on her way to school, even if it’s just a few minutes. Simply wonderful, to get out for a few minutes and move around. Different from the daily work. Many little calves are already romping about in the barn, our high season in the barn begins in November. In the garden it’s time to harvest the remaining fruits and to go with that, I have three good, simple recipes that our family enjoys very much.

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

Cut pumpkin and potatoes into cubes, likewise the onions and garlic cloves, add to the vegetable broth, the whole piece of ginger as well and let simmer, about 30 min. When pumpkin and potatoes are soft, purée finely with an immersion blender (remove the ginger piece beforehand).

Season with salt, pepper and possibly garlic powder. At the end whip the cream and put the finished whipped cream as garnish on top of the pumpkin soup.

The pumpkin soup tastes best when you put a dollop of whipped cream on top, a splash 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 salt, 10 tablespoons milk, 1–1.5 kg apples, 1/8 l cider or wine or water, possibly 2–3 tablespoons sugar for the apples if they are sour, 4 egg whites, 150 g sugar.

Preparation: Beat butter, sugar and egg yolks until frothy, add flour, baking powder and milk alternately, bake on a baking sheet at 180 degrees until almost done. Meanwhile, while stirring, grate the apples (not too fine, or cut into thin slices), briefly stew with wine or water and possibly sugar.

Beat egg whites with sugar. When the cake base is lightly browned, take it out and spread the blanched apples on it and spread the meringue topping over it on the sheet. Then back into the oven briefly and bake until the meringue topping is light brown. Enjoy your meal. This cake tastes very moist; if you have a few egg whites left over from other cooking, you can easily beat more than 4 egg whites if you like a larger meringue topping.

Good luck from farmer Katharina at Zittrauerhof. 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.