Hello!

Finally, the long-awaited results of our First Ever Tiger Gardens Video Taste Test! Sue reviews 5 entries of Butternut Squash Soup — 2 homemade and 3 store-bought. The suspense has been palpable. The results are (not at all) shocking. The experiment did, however, lead to an expanded Mission — to replace store-bought versions of our favorite staples with homemade versions preserved in our pantry.

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for — the results of First Ever Tiger Gardens Video Taste Test!

Big surprise Sue’s homemade Butternut Squash won Sue’s Taste Test, Entry #2, but we were surprised that the store-bought versions were not even in the same orbit as our homemade soup. They were horrible. Laughably-horrid.

However, now we have a new big batch of this awesome soup, soon to appear on TigerGardens.biz, and on our tables at the Urbana’s Market at the Square on May 3rd, 2025!

Now, I don’t want to go off on a rant or anything, but this experiment was so eye opening — not just to how good homemade soup can be, but to how BAD our store-bought versions are. Truth be told, Butternut Squash Soup is anything but rare in my household. I got this recipe from a dinner party in 1994, so I’ve been making it for 30+ years, every Thanksgiving. It is a great soup to make for video because it is so colorful, and slicing and dicing the squash, I knew, would be awesome on video. Also, I had some great-looking squashes left from our garden this year! I knew it would win any taste-test. However, I thought it would be close. I thought I had remembered buying this soup from the store in the past. Apparently not.

So I made the video about making the soup, canned the soup, and made the video for the taste test, and BOY was I surprised … at how horribly-laughably-bad the store-bought versions were. I tried 3 of the leading brands, but they were all terrible.

The moral of the story is MAKE YOUR OWN at home from the freshest ingredients possible. This means locally-grown, which is a whole other topic of it’s own, now that tariffs are going into effect very soon. (As of this writing, the tariffs were paused, but they’ll start back up, and when they do, grocery-store produce will sky-rocket!)

Tune in next week as I make Homemade Red Pepper Soup. And this was an even bigger surprise — there is only ONE variety of Red Pepper Soup at the grocery store. So you HAVE to make your own if you want to eat a soup that actually tastes good, and is good for you.

Here is what we have on hand. New this week is Tim’s new entry into the State Fair (he won 4 1st-place ribbons in ’24), Coffee Jelly. We also made a new batch of Grilled Peach Salsa!

Here is what we have on hand. New this week is Sue’s new obsession: Sauerkraut! Took 3 months to make. We have a half-dozen jars! And new batches of Blackberry Jam and Chow-Chow Relish!

Apple Butter
Cranberry Apple Butter
Apple Jelly (3rd place, State Fair)
Banana Butter (Bananas, Pineapple, Vanilla)
Blackberry Jam (1st place, State Fair – new batch!)
Blackberry-Lemon Jam (1st place, State Fair)
Blackberry-Peach Jam – new batch!
Blackberry Jelly – new batch!
Blackberry/Strawberry/Peach Jelly
Blueberry Jam
Blueberry-Jalapeño Jam
Blueberry-Lemon Jam
Cardinal Heat (Strawberry-Habanero) Jam
Cherry Jam (2)
Concord Grape Jelly
Cranberry Relish (1)
Cranberry-Strawberry-Jalapeño Jam
Dill Pickle Relish (new batch!)
Georgia Heat (Peach-Habanero) Jam – new batch!
Grilled Peach Jam & Jelly
Illini Heat (Blueberry-Habanero) Jam
Jalapeño Jam
Jardinière (2)
Maple Strawberry Dessert Sauce (1st place, State Fair)
Pumpkin Butter & Preserves
Raspberry Jam & Jelly (2nd and 3rd places, State Fair)
Strawberry Jam & Jelly
Strawberry Jam with a hint of Balsamic
Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
Strawberry-Jalapeño Jam
Tomato Jelly (2)
Turkey broth ($5)
Watermelon Jam & Jelly
Yellow-Tomato-Lemon-Basil Jam – new batch!
Sweet Cucumber Pickle Relish
OSU Cowboy Candy (candied jalapeños)
Timmy’s Chow-Chow Relish – new batch!
Timmy’s Corn Relish
Timmy’s Pickled Okra (1st place, State Fair)
Piccalilli Relish
Sauerkraut – new batch!
Zesty Zucchini Relish (1)
Ketchup
BarBraQ Sauce (Sweet & Saucy Streisand Sauce)
Grilled Peach Salsa (3rd place, State Fair)
Mild, Medium, and Hot Salsas (Hot – 1st place, State Fair)
Salsa Verde (2)
Strawberry-Jalapeño Medium Salsa (1)
Velvetty-Smooth Tomato Soup – with roasted red peppers!
Slightly-Spicy Pizza Sauce
Zesty Zpaghetti Zauce (2nd place, State Fair)
Zesty Peach Barbeque Sauce

See you soon at the Market!

Sue & Tim Tiger
Tiger Gardens
​www.tigergardens.biz
​www.anyonecancan.com