Day of the Soup - 2010

Sunday morning found me on the way to Sister #1's house to help with our annual "Day of the Soup". Every year Sister #1, Sister #2, and me gather to make a huge communal soup that we split between us. We estimated that we made approximately 16 gallons of beef-chicken-vegetable soup this year. The soup will be placed in containers and stored in the freezer to be consumed between now and next year's "Day of the Soup".

We don't follow a set recipe; after all, this is a soup and one can vary the ingredients to one's liking. The following is a list of the things, in no particular order, we tossed this year into the soup pot. This year we increased the amount of V8 juice to 4 quarts and used the regular instead of the spicy; after all, one can add more hot pepper if they want a more spicy soup. We also added some tinned dice tomatoes to the pot this year. The tomato juice was the juice I bottled from the tomatoes from the back veggie garden and my juice contains no salt. The V8 juice does have salt, but when mixed in with 16 gallons of soup the amount of salt in each bowl is negligible. If you are concern with the amount of salt added from the V8 juice, you can obtain salt free V8 juice and use it instead of the regular V8 juice. We also increased the celery from one bunch to two bunches

• 4.5 kg (10 lbs) of yellow onions
• 8.5 l (9 qts) of tomato juice (homemade)
• 2.7 kg (6 lbs) tinned tomato sauce
• 2.7 l (91.5 oz) tinned diced tomatoes
• 3.78 l (4 qt) V8 juice
• 2 large bunches celery
• 4.7 l (5 qts) corn
• 3.2 kg (7 lbs) green peas
• 6.8 kg (15 lbs) white potatoes
• 3 large turnips
• 2.7 kg (6 lbs) lima beans
• 2.3 kg (5 lbs) carrots
• 6.8 kg (15 lbs) chicken (off bone weight)
• 4.5 kg (10 lbs) beef
• Various seasoning; cumin, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, sugar, garlic, whatever your fancy.

It is important to cook the beef and chicken separately and add them at the end of the process.

Carrots

Onions

Vegetables

Chicken

Beef

A Huge Pot of Soup

A Hearty Bowl Of Delicious Soup

When it is finished, you have a hearty bowl of delicious soup to celebrate your labours.