Scavenger hunt

I did get a bit preachy yesterday, I know. Don't worry, I won't be like that all the time - just like to pin my colours to the mast (as it were) early on, so y'all know where I'm coming from. Anyway, moving on...

Yesterday I had a bit of a scavenger hunt on the way back from school (S goes to school in Boston, so it's up the A16, left at Willow's Lane and onto the B1183 and then north, north, north for about 11 miles). It yielded the following:

From the house next to the train tracks on Willow's Lane, 6 eggs for 80p.

From a house near some garages at Carrington, 7lbs of potatoes for £1.

From a farm entrance at the north end of New Bolingbroke: Marrow (40p), bag of pears (30p), net of onions (50p) and a cucumber (30p).

I had some leftovers from Wednesday's dinner so we had those yesterday, and today I cooked this simple but hearty soup with yesterday's scrumpings:

Started off by peeling and chopping about a quarter of a pumpkin, three pears and an onion, which I cooked in a little local rapeseed oil with a few sprigs of thyme from the garden and a spoonful of honey. Then I added about 700ml of vegetable stock (I confess I used Oxo as it was already there, but I'm looking into local versions and/or making my own). Whizzed it with a hand-held blender and got this:

Which we'll eat later on after S is home from school, with some of the bread I made earlier with flour from Heckington Windmill. I sampled a bit earlier and it's pretty tasty!

Those onions were real eye waterers, but full of flavour - I had a few bits in my Lincolnshire Poacher cheese and 8 Sail Ale Chutney (also from Heckington Windmill) sandwich for lunch :)