Stackable Vegetable Soup

No, this is not a new quilting pattern; it's exactly what you would think. We did have a wonderful vegetable garden this year thanks to lots of rain and our new raised beds. We've never used them before and it was quite an investment in time, labor and money but what a difference they make. Our soil here is not great and the raised beds were filled with purchased soil and compost.  

My husband built them; him and my son hauled them outside.

Everything thrived and grew to monstrous sizes...

almost like veggies on steroids.

We don't use any sprays and lucked out with the animals not using them for midnight snacks although we did find some little bunnies hanging out there.

The only bad thing is that they all come in at once; it's great fun and so pretty to see all the colors sitting in baskets in the kitchen...

but what to do with them all.

This was our butternut squash patch, my favorite squash...and by the end of summer

it looked like this, but my husband counted over 80 squash and they are one veggie that will keep for most of the winter in our cold garage.

Everything is going fast but I'm not complaining; as much as I love these wonderful veggies, I love September as in my mind, it's the beginning of fall season and holidays and holiday decorating. I used to be a teacher in NY and we always started back the day after Labor Day, they still do so I would be going back to school this week...

but instead I'm making gobs and gobs of vegetable soup 

to use up all these wonderful veggies......

and then I freeze meal portions in a ziploc bag inside an 8x8 pan. After it freezes, I let it set out for a little while making it easy to remove from the pan and stack them in my freezer - Stackable Vegetable Soup.

Yum...Yum...