Squash and Local Winter Eating…
I
t was brought to the farm’s attention recently that some folks had bad winter squash in their shares… making some question how “fresh” the items being delivered are. There was only a small small fraction that were “bad” with over 95% being quite good with quality entirely maintained. In the world of local eating by the season and thus in our CSA. Unlike a grocery store, where items are shipped in everyday from all over the world, from locales with very different climates and growing seasons, all the CSA food is from local farms. Local farms that harvest as the land and weather determines here, selecting storage crops to enjoy over the winter months. Winter squash, true to it’s name sake, it considered “winter” due to its hard outer skin which allows for storing despite being harvested earlier.
This squash in your boxes was harvested in November and has been stored properly since then, culling out of bad ones as need be. This it the way of local eating. You will not always have 100% perfection and coupled with all the rain of this past year, some of those squash just don’t make it to their final edible endings. Fret not though as there is a beautiful and connecting feeling in knowing you are eating by a time table that is not controlled by grocery managers, stock prices or the food system that has no seasons, no faces and will never tell you no to raspberries in February. So embrace your bad squash and compost it or eat it up super fast if you notice spoilage taking place. A quick slice, peel and trim is all you need to take the remaining good bits to a roasting pan to be cooked and enjoyed. Also, take note that storing these squash in over heated apartments (I know, totally out of most of our control, but worth nothing) does not help either, so try your best to keep these babies cool.
After a proper burial for the squash lost to the good storage fight, celebrate the replacements that are ready for you! There will be an extra box at the CSA drop offs this week where any bad squash will be happily replaced!
You lose one squash… and you gain another. Now doesn’t that feel better?
Now that we’re on the subject of Butternut Squash, it is one of the uniquely American foods. The word “squash” comes from a Native American (Massachuset Indian) word meaning “eaten raw or uncooked,” though today we consume most of our squashes cooked. Part of the North American Food Package along with beans and soughum (each continent has a given food package of native foods,) butternut squash is thus puritanically American. Particular apples, concord grapes and maple syrup are also foods with an American birth right. Speaking of maple syrup….
Maple syrup is coming next week! Drum roll please and for your enjoyment links to a recipe and article on perfect pancakes if the syrup makes its way to a brunch near you. Maple syrup is one of the original American foods, with history telling the Indians taught the early settlers this practice. Much like how we have to store foods after harvesting, the Indians did the same and maple syrup, made after boiling off the water from maple sap of the tapped trees, added sweetness and variety to their diets into the winter months and beyond. Depending on the tribe, there are varying legends as to how maple syrup was first made, but there is no denying its role in today’s food stuffs. Now that natural eating is the only way to go with many steering clear of refined cane sugar, this sweetener is like liquid gold. With a characteristic aroma and flavor, few can deny the goodness of real and pure maple syrup. In fact, making sugar in North America is one of the toughest agricultural challenges. Some other countries have the ability to grow and process sugar easily but here we must extract sugars from plants, saps, etc.
Make it with Maple Ideas:
<> Perfect Pancakes! recipe included My Pancake Recipe
<> Use in oatmeal, baking or sweetening tea… Swirl into yogurt….
<> Spread over toast or make a maple salad dressing, adding in toasted nuts and a good cheese…
<> Combine equal parts with Dijon mustard for a spread to put on chicken or pork before roasting…
<> Drizzle over french toast, bread puddings, ice cream….
<> Maple glazed parsnips and/or carrots make a tasty side dish…
Tags: american foods, butternut squash, local eats, maple syrup, native foods, recipe, winter CSA
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