Actually with manure, you need to know what the horses are eating. If they are on an all alfalfa diet (hay or pellets or cubes), their manure is heaven, and should create no weeds. If they are eating grain hay - wheat, barley, rye, oat, etc - these grains will regrow from the manure. Not sure about a diet of grass/grass hay as we don't feed it. If the horse ranch already feeds a vitamin supplement, you wouldn't need the calf manna (which is just one of a zillion horse supplements). I've never heard of adding horse vitamins as rose amendments (?) Pure composted alfalfa based manure as compost is awesome in and of itself. I'd guess that making a tea from horse manure from any diet - again even without additives, would not create a weed problem and be beneficial.

OK, don't panic about the oxalic acid, other more common greens have it too, like lambsquarters, beet leaves, spinach, swiss chard (leaves & stalks), rhubarb, and parsley. All things I like. Moderation is key, unless you have problems with calcium absorption or kidney stones. I just finished the batch, it is pretty yummy, and I can see why people liked it in the spring, because back in the day lemons weren't commonly available. The stuff looks like something you would need to clean off of the aquarium though. I very vaguely followed a recipe for "Saint Bertille Herb Soup" from a cookbook called "Twelve Months of Monastery Soups" by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourette. (What a name!) I love the book, got if for Christmas one year. The actual recipe sounds good too. It calls for lettuce, parsley, watercress, scallions and chervil, none of which I used, lol! I sort of subbed the herbs I had, and some wild onion bulbs from the yard and some dried chives and dried chervil. And the juice of a wrinkly lemon. The combo of bolted cilantro and the tartness of the sorrel was good. Also in there was thyme prunings and dill volunteers, along with some dandelion greens and some frozen spinach. I also didn't have cream so used 2% milk and lite cream cheese mixed. Also added one yellow potato. Saint Bertille Herb Soup - from "Twelve Months of Monastery Cooking" 1 small head leaf lettuce 1 bunch sorrel 1 cup chopped parsley 10 scallions or 2 leeks 1 bunch watercress butter 1 1/2 quarts vegetable stock 1 cup white wine 1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half 1 egg yolk, beaten 1/2 cup chervil salt and pepper to taste Shred the lettuce and the sorrel. Chop the parsley, scallions and watercress into small pieces. Melt the butter in the soup pot, add the chopped greens and cook slowly for a few minutes over low heat. Stir continually. Add the stock and the wine. Cover the pot and cook for about 40 min. Remove the pot from the heat, add the cream, beaten egg white, chervil, salt and pepper. Blend well in a blender. Reheat the soup for a few mintues, but do not allow it to boil. Refrigerate the soup and serve cold. Or it can be served hot with slices of French bread on the side. Note: I pureed the soup in the pot with a hand blender. I mixed the egg and milk together, and then slowly added 1 cup of the broth to that mixture. Then I slowly drizzled the egg mixture into the warm soup. I cooked it on low to cook the egg for about 10 min. It didn't curdle! I will be eating this hot, as I can't abide by cold soup for some reason. Gazpacho and cucumber are all I have been able to stomache.

We had dinner with friends out of town. Joanie was going to throw away the turkey carcass and the dark meat, bones, etc. I begged her to please freeze it and remind me to take it home when we left yesterday. She did! I am making the stock right now and will de-fat it tomorrow and have turkey/vegetable soup and homemade bread tomorrow night. I just cannot imagine throwing out the turkey carcass. (But I love to cook.)

Your soup night sounds fab! We did a nod to it being Christmas Eve with a beaded tree for a centerpiece. Ann T., avoid your eyes, and skip the rest. :) Soup was minestrone flavored stone soup. I think the caterer left as much food as was served at our big party, so there were a lot of celery and carrots, grape tomatoes, cauliflower and broccoli left. Those were all diced for the soup, plus a couple of onions, half a head of garlic, some yellow vine tomatoes, a bag of baby kale and a white cabbage. So I didn't have to go down to the garage, the base was what I had in the kitchen freezer. That's three cups of low FODMAP chicken stock and three cups of beefy cabbage soup. I added a can of crushed tomatoes, a small can of fire roasted, and a smaller can of tomato sauce, plus vegetarian no-MSG bouillion and a little jarred soup base, for the salt. :) Some pepper, Tabasco (because I was too tired to clean serrano peppers from the garden) and mostly red wine. The starter was salmon salad made from the cranberry mustard salmon skewers leftover, broken up and dressed with what I think was the remoulade from the fried chicken drummettes. It had separated, and was a thick mayonnaise consistency and very herby, with a good acid sharpness that went well with the fish (which hadn't gone fishy). That was served with the leftover tortilla chips and relishes: baby corn, spiced baby carrots, pickle chips, raddishes and mixed olives. I also made some kale chips for something light. :) The soup was served alongside a leftovers casserole: a layer of latkes on the bottom (I thought they'd make it easier to serve but they fell apart), then layers of jewel rice, butternut curry, chopped broccoli, then filled with a bread pudding made from dry, bready donut holes, a (new) pretzel baguette, the chicken from the drummettes, the Moroccan beef cubes from another skewer, a couple of sundried tomato chicken sausages I had in the fridge to add more meat, and a couple of (new) leeks sautéed with a packet of small diced pancetta. There was cinnamon on the donut holes, the flavor of which came up more in the custard than it had on the donuts, but it went well with the garlic pepper I seasoned it with. Dessert was a tarte made from a sheet of frozen puff pastry that needed using. It was brushed with leftover passion fruit sauce, topped with leftover crème anglaise, and leftover fruit. :) There were also everybody's favorite freshly baked Toll House cookies from the Toll House cookie expert and party colored Dutch chocolate half dollars (leftover). The pudding casserole could have been improved upon (custard in the bottom layer under the curry to glue it together--the curry was a rich paste so I thought it would do the job, but it just softened everything--and cut up the donut holes smaller so they'd stick better), but everyone liked it and ate well of it. I heard a few "stuffed"'s. :) My fridges heaved sighs of relief to see so many containers removed! Most of all, we had a delightful evening with loved ones who couldn't be at the big party.