SSE Collection Bean 5396: 'Theodore Meece'

At 96 years of age, Theodore Meece was honored as Kentucky’s Oldest Worker. While a heart ailment caused by old age slowed the accomplished centennialist as he grew older, Theodore continued to work on his farm until passing away in 2006 at 105 years old.

Theodore Meece began life on September 3, 1901. Living on a farm, he learned the value of hard work from an early age. Theodore had his first job making 50 cents a day digging grubs out of the fields when 12 years old. In his teens, he traveled by himself to work the oil fields in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he also taught himself to drive. Theodore learned to read from his grandmother, and traveled great distances to complete high school – a noted accomplishment of his time.

In Theodore’s mid-twenties, he met his wife at a post office where young locals spent their time after work, and they settled down on her family’s land in Somerset, Kentucky.

Here he established a farm and taught in rural schools for 31 years. He often shared seeds and plants with neighbors, while sometimes eliciting friendly competition about the size and taste of various vegetables. Theodore shared a bean he called ‘Meece’, which was so popular locally that it was mentioned in his obituary.

Theodore first obtained his bean when he settled in Somerset from locals Idy and Minnie Snell. Minnie called it a ‘cornfield bean’ as locals often grew the variety on Hickory Cane corn. This corn variety would grow 12-14 feet tall, and the ears would be used for pickling and roasting whole. The bean was shared between neighbors and passed down through generations of the Snell family, where it is still grown by Minnie’s great-grandson, Gene, who calls it ‘Minnie’ bean in her honor.

Though Theodore has passed away, his legacy lives on in the story of the ‘Theodore Meece’ bean.  John Inabnit donated the bean to Seed Savers Exchange with the following note:

“The Theodore Meece bean came from Theodore Meece of Poplarville, KY, just a few miles down the road from where I live. Mr. Meece is going to be 105 this year. Someone really needs to do a story on him. He is a retired school teacher, farmer, taught Sundy School for 75 years, remembers the 1^st car, airplane in this area and is a real character. He kept his drivers license til he was 100.”

Theodore’s bean can be eaten as shelling beans, and have a good flavor and moist texture. The Snell family often pickled or dried fresh snap beans to use in the winter. The dried beans are oval and have a creamy tan grey-blushed base with an overlay of dark brown stripes and mottles.

Read more about our plant collections here.

Mailbox Friends

These days, speaking of a “mailbox” might bring about images of our virtual mailboxes, not the charming metal containers at the end of our driveways. When Seed Savers Exchange began in the pre social media days of 1975, our members were older and living in rural parts of the country.  They relied on these physical metal boxes to not only exchange hand-written letters but heirloom seeds as well. This unique club of seed savers referred to each other as “mailbox friends.” This week our 2013 Yearbook will be mailed out to more than 10,000 members—the 38^th year in a row—to continue facilitating this connection between seed saving brethren. This Yearbook might well represent the largest private index of seed varieties in the United States.

While it is always a considerable challenge to compile the listings of more than 19,000 varieties from nearly 700 seed savers each year, one of the fun experiences is reading the many descriptions of varieties offered.

Passing by the office kitchen table on my way to get a cup of coffee a few weeks ago, two staff members were proofing the listings from the upcoming Yearbook and reading some of the anecdotes out loud. Christy was amused by an Iowa member who wrote, “In keeping with my penchant for selecting seed based on names (I buy wine the same way- don’t you?), ‘Little Brown Cat’ has joined my collection because, as my son observed, you really don’t see brown cats.”

Sarah said, “Listen to the history of the ‘Doloff’ bean.” First grown by Roy Dolloff in Vermont, he gave it to Hattie Gray who remembered walking with her mother to Burke Hollow and back to get the seed from him when she was a girl in the 1920’s. Hattie grew the seed for 60 years and gave it to Leigh Hurley who listed it in 1986. Today, 27 years later, five members are still listing the ‘Dollof’ bean.

Those hand-written letters are treasures which support Seed Savers Exchange’s belief that every seed has a story to tell. Whether you choose to utilize the yearbook as it always has been—through the print copy coming to your mailbox at the end of the driveway, or through the recently offered electronic version on our website, consider the people who have chosen to carry these varieties forward. Along with a check, send them a note of thanks in appreciation for preserving our garden heritage.

No matter the form of mailbox you use, we are thrilled to see Seed Savers Exchange members utilizing the Yearbook not only as a way to acquire and cultivate seeds, but relationships as well.  As one member proudly told us this year, “In 2008 I contacted a SSE member in my area and we have been great friends ever since." Mailbox friends.

To learn more about the Yearbook and the additional benefits of becoming a SSE member, visit www.seedsavers.org/Membership/.

Seed Savers Exchange Distributes 2013 Yearbook

Annual publication makes available more than 12,000 heirloom and open-pollinated varieties of seed.

Decorah, IA. For the past 38 years, the Yearbook, which is distributed to Seed Savers Exchange’s 13,000 members, has grown into one of the largest private seed indexes in the United States. The Yearbook was created in 1975 in an effort to involve gardeners in the preservation of America’s garden heritage.

A non-profit grassroots organization, Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) asks its members, most of whom are home gardeners, to play a vital role as participatory conservationists in collecting, maintaining and sharing heirloom and open-pollinated seeds. Unlike hybrid seeds, the seeds of heirloom and open-pollinated varieties can be saved and grown again and will produce fruit true to the parent plant, a process used for thousands of years. The annual Yearbook is the preservation tool that fosters the sharing of seeds between SSE members.

“The Yearbook first started out as a mimeographed list of seeds shared by a handful of Seed Savers Exchange supporters back in 1975,” recalled Diane Ott Whealy, co-founder and Vice President of SSE. “Today, it is a 500 page compilation with almost 20,000 listings, ranging from Amaranth to Watermelon.”

This year SSE members have the opportunity to choose from 12,495 unique varieties from 694 listed members found across all 50 states and 12 countries. A listed member is a gardener or farmer who saves seed and offers them for exchange in the Yearbook. Each of these listed members provides an answer to what varieties perform well in their specific location: ‘Luther Hill’ corn in Ontario, ‘Speckled Butter’ bean in Mississippi, ‘Wenk’s Yellow Hots’ pepper in California, ‘Green Nutmeg’ muskmelon in Indiana, to name a few. Each variety offered in the Yearbook provides a connection between seed saver and grower.

“With the potential for climate change, the genetic variability of heirloom and open pollinated seeds has never been more important to safeguarding our future,” Whealy noted. “And the role the Yearbook and the Exchange plays is critical to providing alternatives for gardeners in an ever changing environment.” Learn more about the Yearbook and becoming a Seed Savers Exchange member here.

Located six miles north of Decorah, Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the preservation and distribution of heirloom seeds.  Seed Savers Exchange maintains a collection of thousands of open-pollinated varieties, making it one of the largest non-governmental seed banks in the United States.  For information visit www.seedsavers.org.

For More Information, Contact:

Steve Carlson Seed Savers Exchange 563-387-5686 newsroom@seedsavers.org

Evaluation Program Highlights for 2012

The Evaluation Program

Maintaining and distributing unique heirloom and open-pollinated seeds is the primary goal of the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) gene bank. The Evaluation Program is an important link between maintaining varieties at Heritage Farm and getting them into the hands of gardeners, chefs, and farmers.

The Evaluation Program, which is only three years old, was started with the financial support from people like you. The program allows us to collect data on a variety’s traits throughout its life cycle. This data includes characteristics such as plant height, flower color, days to maturity, and fruit size.

• In 2012 staff recorded more than 40,000 evaluation descriptors on over 1,000 different accessions.

Bringing Back Food Culture

The program also evaluates culinary usage—incredibly important in a world of unsustainable eating and forgotten food cultures. Modern fruits and vegetables bred for shipping and uniformity lack the diversity seen in heirloom varieties—like beets, potatoes, cabbages, and apples that store for months in a root cellar; horticultural beans harvested between the snap and dry bean phases for their higher protein content; and melons best suited for baking. The forgotten traits in these varieties are the building blocks to a sustainable food system.

The information collected through the evaluation program serves several purposes. It allows us to:

• Increase our knowledge about each variety and make that information available to gardeners.
• Make informed management decisions about the collection by developing a comprehensive profile of each accession.
• Reintroduce unique and rare varieties into the marketplace.

From the Preservation Gardens

For the first time ever, Seed Savers Exchange is offering a collection of varieties ‘From the Preservation Gardens’ in our catalog this year. These varieties were selected because of their interesting histories, unique characteristics, and popularity with staff—a direct result of the Evaluation Program.

• Join us in our efforts to preserve our garden heritage for future generations to come. With your financial support for the Evaluation Program, we can rediscover our food culture—one variety at a time.

A tax-deductible donation to Seed Savers Exchange will help us continue to maintain genetic diversity through projects like the Evaluation Program. Support our effort by making a donation or becoming a member online today, or call us at (563) 382-5990 (M-F, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm Central Time).

Thank you for your support,

John Torgrimson Executive Director

P.S. Donate $150 or more before December 31, 2012 and receive a free Seed Savers Exchange 2013 Calendar, which offers a beautiful glimpse of nature's seed bounty at Heritage Farm near Decorah, Iowa, where every seed has a story to tell.

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2012 Evaluation Highlights

Horticultural Beans (Shelling Beans)

Eating beans from the pod, when the beans are fully expanded but not yet dry, is becoming a lost culinary tradition in America. The plump, wet, beans do not store well, and they are difficult to shell mechanically because the tender beans cannot tolerate rough handling. For these reasons, shelling beans have been shunned by industrial agriculture. However, the flavor is rich and shelling beans are richer in nutrients than dry beans. We added a horticultural bean taste test to our 2012 bean evaluation and found that most beans taste good as shelling beans, and some taste really good! Many that performed well in our taste test were not necessarily known as shelling beans historically. For example, “Bessie” (Bean 6042) has been passed down maternally in Frances Sullivan’s family for over a century, each generation using it primarily as a green bean for fresh eating and canning.

Tomato 324 ‘D. Jena Lee’s Golden Girl’

This variety really caught our attention in the 2012 taste test. We described it as having “excellent robust flavor, sweet and slightly tart, low-medium acidity, firm and meaty texture but still juicy, great as a slicing tomato.” Curious about the variety, we investigated its history and discovered that it is mis-named in our collection and should be called “Djena Lee’s Golden Girl.” We are not the first to notice its outstanding flavor. It is promoted by Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste, and won the Chicago Fair’s taste test 10 years in a row in the 1920s and 1930s. Though historically, women played a central role in developing and improving varieties in America’s gardens, Djena Lee was one of the few female plant breeders who enjoyed recognition for her efforts in early 20th century America.

Kohlrabi 44 ‘Giant Czechoslovakian’

Most kohlrabi reach market maturity in 50-60 days and quickly become woody if left in the field. For that reason, we complete our market mature evaluation at 60 days. One variety in our evaluation grow-out, ‘Giant Czechoslovakian,’ did not form a kohlrabi head at 60 days. We thought it did not care for the spring weather. But in our fall grow-out of the same varieties, it again produced no stem-swelling at 60 days. We began to question whether it was really a kohlrabi, or if our seed-stock was compromised by crossing with another Brassica oleracea. We researched similarly named varieties in commercial catalogs, promoted as a 130 day maturity kohlrabi that does not get woody even when large. Then we went back to the long-forgotten spring planting and found enormous kohlrabis! Harvested at 176 days, they tasted great!

 Squash 5080 ‘Dostal Cucumber’ Squash

This squash’s oblong shape, size, and dark green mature color make it look somewhat like a cucumber. A staff favorite as a winter squash, this year we evaluated this pepo squash as a summer squash as well.  To our surprise, ‘Dostal’ turned out to be a favorite 2012 summer squash - with its dense flesh and mildly sweet flavor. It went on to win accolades again in the 2012 winter squash taste evaluation for its buttery, smooth texture and complex, rich flavor. ‘Dostal’ has proven that we cannot make assumptions about the versatile varieties in our collection based on the limitations of more modern, highly specialized varieties.

Debunking the Hybrid Myth

At the Seed Savers Exchange Conference this summer, Dr. John Navazio 's talk, "Debunking the Hybrid Myth," laid out the hybrid vs. open-pollinated argument.  Here's a peek at John's speech, the whole speech is available here.  Also, check out Dr. Navazio's new book, The Organic Seed Grower, due out in December.

Why are hybrids favored?

• Once the parental inbreds are fixed it is easy to make the hybrids year after year.  You have two parental types and you cross them.
• You can maintain those two homogeneous, very uniform parental types, and every time you want to make some new hybrid seed just plant it out in the field, detassle one, and let the other one make pollen.  They’ve been inbred so much they’re very easy to maintain, unlike OP’s that have all that variation. You're seed savers, you’ve seen it, right?  Once you've inbred them you’ve basically made it so genetically narrow that you’ll see that the variation is gone.  Two uniform parents make a uniform hybrid.
• Companies liked it because hybrids allowed instant proprietary ownership. If you maintained your own inbreds and didn’t give it to anybody else you were the only one that could make that ‘Copper Cross’ hybrid and sell it.  Whereas, previously, if you were Ferry Morse and released ‘Detroit Dark Red’ in 1902, within three years every home garden, farmer, and seed company in America had ‘Detroit Dark Red.’ Owners of seed companies loved this little trick, this little wizardry, and the breeders liked it because of the stacking of traits it is actually easier to breed hybrids.

What are the disadvantages of hybrids?

• Inbred lines are genetically narrow and have less adaptation over time than many OP's.  That’s why so many of them died from inbreeding depression.  You reveal these deleterious traits and narrow their genetic base so much that they’re not adapting and evolving like our older varieties were at the hands of the humans who kept them.  In fact, in studies of inbred lines they found that the best inbred lines tend to have less of McClintock’s transposable elements which meant they stayed stable much easier and are the reason the companies loved them so much.   It’s anti-evolutionary.
• Hybrids are weaklings.  When you grow inbred seed, and I worked at a company where I grew inbred seed, you have to pour on the chemicals, use more water, more fertility, you really do have to baby them.  They are prima donnas.
• F1’s focus is often not on the best traits.  They’re really focused on the traits that are good for the centralized systems, where we do high input agriculture.  It’s the wedding of modern reductionist science and high input, high output.  That’s not the way Mother Nature normally works.  Vandana Shiva talks about how the focus of science has been reductionist, and it’s all about how can we figure out the input to get exactly what we need to get the right output.  At that point you are taking a lot of nature out of the system and the new variation that gives us all of the diversity that we honor so much here today just doesn’t show up as much.
• When you save seed from the hybrids, they don’t breed true, and when varieties are dropped they are gone!  You don’t save seed from hybrids, although there’s always an exception to the rule.
• Seed growing has become very centralized and very specialized.  A hundred years ago all farmers had knowledge of how to grow seed for most of their top line crops.  If you want to talk about loss of diversity, we have lost the people who know how to grow seed.  This is as tragic as losing the genetic variation itself.

What are the advantages of open-pollinated varieties?  

• They carry variability, and this results in genetic resilience.
• OP varieties can be bred to be tough in all stages.  We can select for that in all stages.  You can do that with hybrids too, but it’s easier if you have that built in resilience.
• They can be very regionally adapted and continue or always will be adapting year in and year out.  We need things like that right now, we’re going through this climate chaos, and so is everyone that I speak to all over the country.
• When you save seed they do breed true, if you followed your isolation, of course.
• Varieties are not lost due to a business decision.  Many of the farmers I work with actually went back to OPs' because they were sick and tired of seed companies dropping hybrid varieties that they’d actually come to know and love and learn to cater their system too.  All of the sudden it is gone one day.

What are the disadvantages of OP’s?  

• They are genetically variable, and not always consistent. I don’t know if any of you get frustrated on the garden scale of not getting as much uniformity as perhaps you would like - some cabbage plants don’t really make a head or something like that.  But we can also take advantage of this if we do our selection and upkeep, and learn how to foster that adaptation.
• They are harder to maintain.  I can attest to that having bred both hybrid and OP's.  It’s much harder to breed something that’s genetically resilient, while keeping in enough variability to keep it strong, and enough selection to make it uniform.  It’s a real paradox, how will I get a uniform enough variety but keep the variability?
• How do seed companies keep varieties exclusive?  If we’re just growing OP’s anyone can go and grow it.   That’s a biggie. And the question that I ask all the seed growers I work with is, "What is the incentive for you to proceed if there is no business incentive?"

Healthy Food Systems with Dan Carmody

This year's Harvest Festival was filled with presentations and workshops from SSE staff as well as two guest speakers presenting as part of our Harvest Lecture Series. Dan Carmody, president of the Detroit Eastern Market, spoke in the final hour of the event, describing the history and future of Detroit, the market, and the larger narrative of regionally-based food systems. Dan's presentation discusses issues with current food systems (energy use, nutrition, subsidies, distribution) as well as strategies for reform. Using the Eastern Market as an example, he describes the potential for local food systems to bring about transformative economic, social, and ecological change - particularly in urban areas.

The audio below contains the entirety of Dan's lecture: from Detroit's long decline to its recent rebirth; from the surging community gardening movement to the rebuilding of a local food processing infrastructure.

The Great Famine, Green Acres and Detroit

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc01greenacresanddetroit.mp3]

An Effect Greater Than Carpet Bombing

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc02aneffectgreaterthancarpetbombing.mp3]

This Narrative of Rebirth and Detroit Eastern Market

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc03thisnarrativeofrebirth.mp3]

Offering Food and Conviviality, Food Systems and Energy

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc04sellingfoodandconviviality.mp3]

A Host of Problems, Favorite Dichotomies and Local Food Production

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc05ahostofproblems.mp3]

Department of Defense and Rebuilding a Regional-Based Food System

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc06rebuildingregionalfoodsystems.mp3]

The Community Gardening Movement and Our Future Food Systems (Excluding Underwater Cities of Tomorrow)

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc07ourfuturefoodsystems.mp3]

Eastern Market Capital Plan, Pickles and Custard Pie

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc08ourcapitalplan.mp3]

$20 Million Worth of Meat and Pieces of the Food System

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc09piecesofthefoodsystem.mp3]

Graffiti, Bloody-Run Creek, Food Access and Engagement

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc10graffitiandfoodaccess.mp3]

This Country Deserves More Than Two Hams and How We Feed Cities

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc11howwefeedcities.mp3]

Food and Local Economies, Craft Beer and Furgency

[audio: http://blog.seedsavers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dc12foodandlocaleconomies.mp3]

Lectures were supported by a grant from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Seed Savers Exchange featured on Public Television

Market to Market Features Seed Savers Exchange

(Johnston, Iowa)  -- Market to Market, the weekly journal of rural America, will include a story about Seed Savers Exchange and the River Root Farm in its October 26, 2012 edition of the series.

The story features Decorah, Iowa-based Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit seed bank that maintains thousands of heirloom vegetables, herbs, flowers, and plants. One of the nation’s largest non-governmental seed banks, Seed Savers Exchange carries heirloom varieties that have been passed down through generations of farmers and gardeners. These varieties are valued for their genetic diversity and adaptability to pressures such as climate change.

Seed Savers Exchange seeks to preserve and share agricultural heritage with its membership and the public. The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership estimates that about 25 percent of all plants are in danger of becoming extinct.

“We believe strongly that given the changes that are occurring with weather and climate, regional differences, that it’s really important that all seeds be maintained for future generations,” said John Torgrimson, president and executive director of Seed Savers Exchange. “A hundred years from now we might not know what seeds in our seed bank are best adaptable to the conditions that might exist…here in Decorah, Iowa.”

Market to Market also talked to Mike Bollinger and Katie Prochaska of the River Root Farm, a diversified vegetable and seed farm located near Decorah. River Root Farm grows garlic with seed stock from Seed Savers, and provides the organization with garlic for retail sale.

Market to Market is produced by Iowa Public Television and broadcast in 20 states on more than 114 public television stations. Hosted by Mike Pearson, Market to Market covers the $100+ billion business of food, and issues affecting the 56 million residents of rural America.

In Iowa, Market to Market can be seen at 8:30 p.m. Friday, October 26, and again at 1 p.m. on Sunday, October 28. This week’s broadcast times reflect a temporary schedule change due to political coverage on IPTV.

Market to Market can also be seen online beginning Friday evening at www.iptv.org/mtom. Additional analysis from Market to Market experts is also available on this website.

For more information about Market to Market, contact Iowa Public Television at 515-242-3146.

Information on programming channels, reception, and more can be found at www.iptv.org.

Harvest Fest & Soup Recipes

Despite the gloomy weather, Harvest Festival was a cozy event under the post and beams of Heritage Farm’s old barn.  Nearly 300 attendees sampled dozens of different antique apple varieties, heirloom beans, and fragrant roasted garlic.  Tasting over 26 varieties of apples in one place was truly a unique experience.  Apple expert Dan Bussey commented, “I am always amazed that there is no one favorite apple, some visitors really didn’t like Black Gilliflower, one of my favorites.  Taste is so subjective, just another reason this diversity is so important.”

Area chefs Jim McCaffrey from McCaffrey’s Dolce Vita, Justin Scardina from La Rana, Mattias Kriemelmeyer from the Oneota Community Coop, and Stephen Larson from Quarter/QUARTER, went head to head in a soup cook-off featuring heirloom garlic varieties.  Chef Stephen Larson from Quarter/QUARTER was this winner.  Check out his winning recipe, or better yet, head over to his restaurant.

Garlic Insanity!!!

©Stephen Larson and QUARTER/quarter Restaurant LLC

Makes about 10 – 12 ounce servings

 For the soup:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 pound new crop garlic, cloves separated, peeled and crushed
• 1 1/2 pounds fresh oyster mushrooms (or substitute button mushrooms), divided
• 2 pounds fresh sweet corn kernels (or use frozen), divided
• 1/2 pound yellow fleshed potatoes (like Yukon Gold), peeled and cut into small chunks
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha hot pepper sauce
• 6 cups corn cob stock (or use vegetable or chicken stock, or water)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Reggiano Parmesan cheese

Directions:  Melt the butter in a large soup pot over low heat.  Add the garlic then cook it over VERY LOW heat, stirring occasionally, until very lightly golden (about 1 hour).  Meanwhile, trim the stems from the oyster mushrooms and reserve.  Set aside 6 ounces of the mushroom caps for the garnish then add the rest of the caps to the reserved stems.  Once the garlic is done cooking, add the reserved mushrooms stems and cap mixture, 1 1/2 pounds of the corn kernels, salt, sugar, pepper sauce and stock to the soup pot and bring to a boil over high heat.  Once it has come to a boil, turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 20 minutes (or until the potatoes are very soft).  Meanwhile, make the garnish.  When the soup is done simmering, stir in the cream and cheese then blend in batches on high speed until smooth, passing each batch though a fine strainer, to remove the corn skins, into another pot.  Continue below to finish.

For the garnish and to finish the dish:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Reserved oyster mushroom caps, cut into julienne
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
• Reserved 1/2 pound of corn kernels

Directions:  Put the butter into a large skillet over high heat.  When the butter is melted, add the mushrooms and rosemary, and continue to cook over high heat until the mushrooms are lightly colored.  Add the corn and continue to cook until just tender.  Stir into the blended soup and serve hot.

Or try this one from Chef Jim McCaffrey:

Roasted Garlic, Braebern Apple, Sharp Cheddar Cheese Soup

• 1 Head garlic
• Kosher salt
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 Carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 6 Tbl flour
• 2 braebern apples, deseeded and cut into eighths
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 Tbl Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 4 oz. can green chile, chopped
• Salt to taste.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut tip end of garlic off.  Rub open garlic in kosher salt and sprinkle with olive oil.  Wrap with aluminum foil and bake in oven for forty five minutes. Take cloves out of paper.  Add ¼ cup olive oil to large sauté pan. Saute celery, onions, and carrots until carrots are soft. Add flour and stir it in until slightly browned. Add  garlic cloves. Puree in food processor. Add to large pot. Add two tbl olive oil  to sauté pan and sauté apples until soft.  Puree and add to pot. Add broth and bring to a gentle boil. Turn heat to low and add cream and cheese. When cheese is melted, add remaining ingredients and stir. Enjoy!