Adventures In Natural Living: Ham Bone Soup

In my efforts to make most of our food from scratch I decided to use the bone from the ham we had earlier in the week to make soup. I love soup. Soup and fresh bread can't be beat. If I can make it in the crock pot all the better! Here's what I did.

Ingredients:

Ham bone
leftover ham (cut in bite size pieces)
3 carrots (cut up)
3 celery ribs (cut up)
1/2 an onion (diced)
7 or 8 potatoes (cut in bite size pieces)
(I leave the skins on...that's where all the nutrients are)
about 2 cups of Corn (fresh, frozen, canned...I had leftover from dinner)
4 or 5 garlic cloves (minced)
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
6 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
(or whatever it takes to almost fill your crockpot)
2 cups heavy cream

Directions:

Put the bone in the crockpot first then all the veggies, ham, bay leaves and salt and pepper. Pour broth in until almost to the top of the crockpot. Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 4-5 hours, just until carrots and potatoes are tender. Remove the ham bone (give it to your dog...she will love you forever!) With a potato masher, mash up some of the potatoes to thicken a little then stir in the heavy cream, let cook a little longer just to warm the cream. So yummy!! This made A LOT! I froze 1/2 of it for another day!