I was more than excited when Ben from reason2.be asked me to create a nice, organic soup recipe for the Tree Planting Event 2012. I absolutely love these kind of initiatives! Beautiful scenery, right into nature and hundreds of enthusiasts with the same goal. Do you know any better way to spend a spring-like Sunday morning?

This year's campaign was dedicated to Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist who died in September 2011. She was the founder of the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organisation focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. She also inspired the UN billion tree campaign, which encourages all sectors of society to plant at least one billion trees worldwide each year. The Embassy of Kenya - present at the event - planted trees as a tribute to her passion and her efforts.

The event itself was a great success! All the tree lovers gathered in the Forêt de Soignes/Zoniënwoud in the outskirts of Brussels, close to the castle of Groenendaal, Hoeilaert. School kids, families and other participants planted together 2400 trees in one day! Reason2.be contributed, as well as donating 20 trees as part of their CO2 offsetting scheme. One of those trees was planted by me :-) I hope my small tree will grow up to the sky and bring us lots of oxygen and energy!

Ah, and the soup. Do you remember the celeriac and parsnip cream soup from last week? We worked hard to cook about 30 litres of it, to warm up the participants of the Tree Planting Event. It was a challenge for sure and I need to especially thank my friend Zoi whose moral support and help with cooking, stirring and blending of the soup was priceless. The final result was amazing! Ask the participants, they will tell you… The soup was an absolute hit among the kids. Have you ever seen a soup (moreover a celeriac soup!) that children would love and ask for more? If not, you need to try this recipe then. I was surprised myself seeing one 5-year-old coming at least three times to our stand to ask for top-ups. Unbelievable but true. For me, the thing that did the trick was the crispy onion, a bit sweet, a bit crunchy working really well with the soup. Have a look at the recipe and try it yourself - it was tested by 150 people!

It was such a busy weekend, but I felt so happy when I came back home after the event. I knew I did something that mattered…

To see more pictures form the event, visit the Tree Planting Event album on my Facebook profile.