Saturday, September 13, 2025

First soup of the season

 


Leek, potato, tomato, chickpeas, chicken broth. Seasoned with sea salt, basil salt, long red pepper, smoked paprika.


Six more meals to come.  It's not very cold yet but I thought I could handle a bowl of soup.

I finally wrestled a huge container of lemon balm out of its place on the patio and emptied it. I have to put away the pot and dump the contents. I had thought I'd contain it in this pot because it's invasive. 

What happened was that I gave it an hq from which it sent out tendrils everywhere. So I'm trying to get rid of the main supply. 

It's a relative of mint, so you can see what this means. Now, the peppermint and spearmint I'd like doesn't do well at all. I'm nursing along a little pot of peppermint now and the spearmint has vanished. 

I'll never lack lemon balm though. Tiny plants everywhere.  And it's certainly resistance exercise to drag that massive thing over and empty it.

Happy day everyone, my Wi-Fi is very dodgy today, constantly going out, so I'm writing as I can.



41 comments:

  1. We, too, learned the hard way about lemon balm's (ahem) "enthusiastic" approach to life. We do keep one plant (behind a concrete walkway which it has - as yet - failed to leap), because the bees so love its flowers, but I ruthlessly deadhead it before it sets seed.

    It's almost soup season here, and I can smell the aroma of yours wafting westward. Mmm, mmmmm!

    Chris from Boise

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    1. Yes, it's about the pollinators. That's why I haven't been quick to tear out the lemon balm. The scent is a lovely payment for the work of pulling it when I finally do.
      The first bowl of soup was really good. I miss it in the hot months.

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  2. Your soup looks yummy!
    Sorry about your invasive lemon balm.
    Have a really nice weekend. :)

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    1. The soup was good, so welcome after months of too hot for soup weather. And pulling the lemon balm was exercise of a sort ;)

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  3. I like my leeks sliced really finely, but otherwise your soup loks delicious.

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    1. Noted, in case you ever drop in! This time I cut the leeks and potatoes to match the pre-diced canned tomatoes. Sometimes I like the vegetables to be uniform in size. Often I blend to get a thick soup. Decisions, decisions

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  4. Too bad about the lemon balm, but the fragrance is heavenly. The soup looks and sounds wonderful. You had me at chick peas.

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    1. Yes, the smell is wonderful and I do cook with it, but I only need a small amount. To lemon balm there's no such thing as a small amount. I do like chickpeas and this time I added in the aqua faba.

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  5. It’s getting to be soup season. We will be making one shortly. Potato in our case.

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    1. I don't like to say goodbye to summer, but soup is a consolation prize.

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  6. Such delicious soup. I've got some mint, the variety escapes me at this time, in a container on the sidewalk below my stairs. I just let the whole thing die back last winter, and it came back...just stored the pot on the porch through freezes, but under another pot.

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    1. Yes, the mints vanish in winter then come back. Definitely best in a pot.

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  7. I can't tell you how many lemon balm plants I've pulled out of the mess that some would call a garden. I love lemon but I don't want to ever see it again! And your soup looks fantastic!

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    1. When I was learning to make my laundry soap, one presenter made a big deal of her precious lemon balm, and how not to cut too much of it, in case it dies off. Evidently she lives in a different region, lucky lady.

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  8. That's the gardener's lot - too much of one thing, not enough of another. We compromise.

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  9. It's warmed up a bit here but soup season is near.

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    1. Our days are still warm, but I still push for soup.

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  10. I love how you described the pot of lemon balm as headquarters for all the tendrils it was sending out. Exactly!
    I made chili two nights ago and it was good. I believe I'm cooking fish tonight and I'm sure I'll have leftovers which you have inspired me to use on Sunday for a sort of chowder along with some frozen shrimp I have. Thank you!

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    1. That fish chowder sounds really good, also chili.

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  11. I made the first soup of the season last week. We are back into a hot and humid spell. I learned my lesson with mint long ago but no one told me oregano does the same thing!

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    1. See now, my oregano up and died. Didn't like it here.

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    2. I can pick and send to you as much as you’d like. I have plenty.

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  12. The soup looks yummy! I've had similar experiences with mint. Everyone says it's so invasive but ours languishes and is barely surviving.

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    1. Good thing you don't have it to cut back. There's probably enough going on in your garden already.

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  13. Our mint had almost died until we realized we were drowning it with over-watering. We cut back and it's now filling it's pot and very happy.

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  14. Ohhh I have so much mint drying it's crazy. My lemon mint plant started to die but we got a bit of rain and it is in full growth again. Your soup looks amazing.

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    1. I think the mint family just does what it wants! We're spectators.

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  15. Not so dodgy. Your post came in nice and clear.

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    1. Good. It was very on and off from this end. Sentences kept appearing then vanishing.

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  16. I'm late but I'm here. There's nothing better than homemade soup. Yours looks hearty and delicious. Jon

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    1. I wish I could bring you some, Jon. You'd like it.

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  17. Our soup weather is hopefully gone now and we can have outside bbq weather.
    I read about mint and other herbs going feral. I never put it in the ground. Always in pots on concrete. It worked a treat

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    1. Mint either grows ferociously or it doesn't grow at all. I don't know why this is. Odd to remember you're coming into spring while I'm doing fall cleanup.

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  18. What a great paradigm: soup as consolation prize for summer ending! I did make my first soup (well, it was chili -- but same idea!) on Thursday. I made WAY too much, which means the freezer is holding plenty for future meals. Regarding lemon balm, peppermint, and spearmint -- so interesting that gardeners have such varied experiences. Here in my New England yard, lemon balm doesn't spread, and it dies off every winter. My spearmint tried to choke out my peppermint, so I'm trying to get rid of it (fool's errand, I know!). Peppermint is my favorite for cooking and for using in ice cream, and it seems to grow at just the right rate -- enthusiastic but controllable.

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    1. I love peppermint and it's the least willing to grow. But I have a source to dig it and replace plants.

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  19. When I was a kid, one of the hayfields we cut had spearmint. I loved that. To this day, when I smell mint, I am immediately reminded of being a young girl working in a hayfield on a hot summer day.

    I have not yet made soup, but I do love fall and winter for that very thing.

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    1. Smell will do that, great memories come back, sometimes just an image or a feeling, but so vivid.

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  20. Soup will soon appear on the menu here too. Comfort food at its best.

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    1. I do like soup, a consolation for the end of summer.

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