Cooking With This Week’s Box
Leeks:
Orange Carrots:
Asterix Potatoes:
Orange Italian Frying Peppers:
Mini Sweet Peppers:
White or Yellow Cauliflower or Broccoli Romanesco:
Hello!
This week we’re featuring winter squash! It’s that time of year, so pull out your favorite squash recipes and get ready! This week’s feature recipe is a little different. I like to make homemade granola and I like to include vegetables in every meal of the day, breakfast included. Thus, I was instantly intrigued by Amy Chaplin’s granola recipe for Winter Squash Granola with Turmeric (See Below). This is super simple to make and is not overly sweet. It’s delicious eaten as “cereal” with milk but is also a tasty topping to eat with yogurt, ice cream, or on top of baked fruit. I also included links to several of our favorite squash recipes from past years that are good ones to use with this week’s Kuri Squash.
This week we saw our first frost in the valley, but thankfully we were able to cover most of our pepper plants so we can continue to harvest! Check out this recipe for Everything Bagel Cream Cheese Stuffed Mini Peppers or use that single jalapeño pepper to make Cranberry Jalapeño Dip for something a little different. If you’re feeling like some comfort food, use your sweet peppers to make Roasted Pepper Potato Soup!
We have a different type of potato this week with the Asterix variety. This is a good variety to use in this recipe for Ultimate Baked French Fries or Baked Parmesan Garlic Potato Wedges. Serve these with a nice grilled burger topped with Caramelized Onion Jam with Balsamic Vinegar.
I hope you find some tasty ways to transition into fall this week. I wanted to update you on our sweet potato crop. The crew finished harvesting them last Saturday and the sweet potatoes are currently being “cured.” This is a 7-10 day process that helps to set their skins and develop the sugars. Hopefully they’ll be ready to start washing next week and if so, they’ll be in your box! Have a great week and I’ll see you next week!
-Chef Andrea
Vegetable Feature: Winter Squash
by Andrea Yoder
Winter squash is a broad crop category that is a season within a season. As we transition to fall in the Midwest, winter squash is going to become a main player in our weekly CSA boxes and your cooking adventures. We grow a wide variety of winter squash and strive to select ones that are aesthetically pleasing while still being interesting, delicious, sweet, and flavorful! I say that winter squash is “a season within a season” because different varieties are intended to be eaten at different points in the fall/winter which is greatly based on their storage-ability. Let me explain.
While winter squash is a vegetable meant to be stored and eaten over time, not all winter squash varieties have the same shelf life. Some varieties that have a thin skin and/or are high in natural sugars typically have a shorter shelf life and may not keep into the deep winter. Some of the varieties that fit this category include the very tasty Sugar Dumpling Squash as well as the Orange Kuri and Orange Kabocha squash, we’re delivering this week. In contrast, other varieties have a thicker skin and are often able to be stored for quite some time. Tetsukabuto and Winter Blush squash are two varieties characterized by their ability to store into the winter.
In fact, we don’t even touch Tetsukabuto until it has been in storage for several months as it needs that storage time for its natural sugars to develop! Both Tetsukabuto and Winter Blush have thicker skin and drier flesh. The fact that they do not develop sugars right away lends to their ability to store, but when you do eat them on their time schedule, they are actually sweet and delicious! The other factor that greatly affects how well a squash may store is related to the field conditions where it was grown. If we have a wet year or there is some plant disease in the field, we find some squash varieties do not store very well. Thankfully, field conditions were pretty good this year and we were able to get the majority of our squash harvested ahead of some rain and the onset of too much plant disease.
I mentioned a few varieties that mark the beginning and end of the squash spectrum, but there are other varieties we grow to fill in the middle as well! Butternut squash is probably the most common variety and I consider it more of an “all-purpose” workhorse kind of squash. In general, most butternut varieties are able to be stored into the winter months. However, all varieties of butternut are not the same either! We grow a tasty little one called “Butterscotch.” This variety has rich, sweet flesh and is delicious! Due to its high natural sugars, it does not usually store for very long which is why we prioritize this as our first butternut to enjoy. In recent years seed companies have released some new offerings for butternut spin-offs. We grow two of these types and they are Autumn Frost and Butterkin. Both of these varieties have a butternut parent, which lends to the quality of their flesh that resembles butternut.
Another common variety of winter squash is Acorn squash. For many years we’ve refused to grow acorn squash because it really didn’t have any flavor. I guess that’s why many recipes using acorn squash are full of sugar! Recently we have found two acorn spin-offs that are actually quite tasty as well as being attractive. The first is Heart of Gold squash which is a cross between Sweet Dumpling (similar to our Sugar Dumpling) and acorn. This squash resembles acorn squash in shape, but it is a little larger and has beautiful multi-colored exterior. The other big difference that sets it apart is that it is actually a very flavorful, sweet squash while still being able to be stored! The other acorn-type variety we grow is called Starry Night. This is a new variety on the scene that we trialed last year and really liked because it has very sweet, delectable flesh. This year’s crop has been a bit more variable with some off-types that look a little funny. We’ll have to eat a few more to decide if it’s something we’d like to continue growing.
There are two other varieties I’ll mention. Jester is a new squash we started growing several years ago as a variety to replace Delicata squash which has a very little shelf life despite being very popular. In my opinion, Jester is as good or better tasting than Delicata. It also stores much better, partly because it has a thicker skin. And the last variety we have in our lineup is the Black Futsu Pumpkin! This is a Japanese variety that does resemble a pumpkin but really is a winter squash. In Japan they use the word pumpkin and squash interchangeably. Black Futsu does have the ability to store for a while, despite the fact that it does have thinner skin that is edible!
The optimal storage temperature for winter squash is 45-55°F. This may be difficult to achieve in a home setting, so my recommendation is to choose a cool, dry place in your home, if possible, even if it is a little warmer than 55°F. Many people choose to store winter squash in the garage or basement, which is fine to do as long as these spaces don’t get too cold in the winter and if they aren’t too humid. In the coldest part of the winter our garage temperature usually dips into the 30’s which is too cold for squash. We also do not recommend storing winter squash in the refrigerator. As I mentioned, storage at temperatures less than 45°F may cause chill injury which will shorten the storage potential of your squash.
As you store your squash, check them periodically if you’re keeping them for an extended time. Look for any spots starting to form that may indicate the start of deterioration. If you do see a problem spot, don’t automatically throw it out! I repeat, do not throw it out! If you catch it early, the problem may only affect a very small portion that may be cut away. If that’s the case, don’t delay, it’s time to cook the squash before the issue gets bigger! As far as uses, there are so many different ways you can use winter squash. You can include it in soups, stews, sauces, casseroles, hot dishes, pasta dishes, baked goods, desserts, or just eat it with a little butter, salt, and pepper. Don’t be afraid to create tasty pizzas, tacos, quesadillas, curry dishes and anything else you might dream up! Winter is long and we’re going to be eating quite a lot of squash over the next months, so pull out your old favorite recipes and start looking for new ones to keep things interesting!
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