A Game of Squash: You'd Butternut Cheat!

Have you ever played squash? Someday when I also learn to play cricket, I'll dabble in the sport of squash. For now, the only squash that gives me a workout comes from the garden. This time of year, your winter squash is begging to get cooked. Check for signs of spoilage. If it looks good, wash it, chop it in half (use an axe or drop it from the rooftop for a hubbard), remove the seeds, wrap it in foil, place it on a baking sheet and cook for about 2 hours on 350 F. It's ready when you can scoop it like soft ice cream. If you want to hide it in something, you may want to puree it in the blender or a food processor. Now what to do with it? Here are a couple delicious recipes for winter squash (butternut, acorn, buttercup, hubbard, pumpkin etc.). My kids won't eat plain squash, so we cheat and hide it in homemade macaroni and cheese, chocolate cake, carrot cake, chili, broccoli cheese soup (they don't eat the broccoli either).

  For Squash Mac & Cheese you'll need:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 Tbsp. salt
• 1 tsp. onion powder (use fresh if you like)-1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder (use fresh if you like)-3 cloves, minced
• 1-2 c. milk
• 2 c. squash puree
• 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese (not packed)
• 12 oz. of your favorite noodles

In a large pot fill halfway with water for the noodles. Place on high heat on the stove. Add noodles when it boils and cook until al dente. In the meantime, in a medium saucepan, melt butter on medium heat. Sautee onions and garlic if using fresh, until cooked through, but not browned. Add spices  Stir in flour and let sizzle for a few seconds. Stir in milk until sauce is smooth. Stir in puree and cheddar cheese. Stir frequently until sauce thickens. To thin it add more milk. Mix with noodles and serve hot. My kids devour it, blissfully unaware that it's a "witta bit hewfy."

For Broccoli Cheese Soup, just add half the usual cheese and maybe some more milk to your regular recipe:

I found a carrot and butternut squash cake at bakerette.com. We harvested last season's carrots this week at the RPCG, so I really needed a home for the carrots. Plus we used our homemade applesauce. I cooked these in a muffin tin and they worked just fine:

These were a huge hit. The kids definitely made a racket over these! The broccoli cheese caused a different kind of racket. Sometimes cheaters prosper, right?

Buried Treasure

Imagine a catastrophe in which the stores and your home ran out of food in the frozen depths of January. For hundreds of miles around you. City dwellers in and around Germany near the end of World War II faced such a food crisis. One of the founders for Rose Park Community Garden served a mission for his church in postwar Holland. He heard story after story of desperation and creativity when food became scarce. A year ago I dreamed that a natural disaster struck and I went to the community garden. There I found a line of people standing in the snow on a cold night. At the front of the line were 2 gray-haired men with shovels. They were digging up carrots and parsnips to keep the people fed. Tears of gratitude streamed down my face and I woke up feeling immensely thankful. The two men were Ralph and Scott Steenblik. And the carrots and parsnips were treasure. We dug up some buried treasure this past Saturday and nothing could be sweeter.

Thanksgiving Blessings

What would a Community Garden be without a harvest feast, where friends and family gather and give thanks? Our recent gathering has been for November work days, but most of us will be enjoying a garden gift at our table tomorrow. Part of our mission statement is that we "connect people to heritage." What is heritage? Think of your Thanksgiving Day, especially the dinner. Think of what makes the experience right. Is it a tradition, the food, particular people? Is it a pastime, prayer, story or song? I've heard that we take our culture for granted until it's missing. Then we notice. American food culture is somewhat of an oxymoron, except at Thanksgiving. Here's some food for thought. A  woman displaced by a hurricane whose Thanksgiving dinner--bought and baked by volunteers--was ruined by cranberries in the stuffing. An NPR commentator who refused Alton Brown's advice to not baste the turkey (skin repels juices, oven temperature goes down = longer time in the oven = dry bird). Even I discovered that dry stuffing disrupted my Thanksgiving observance one year. Certainly cranberries, basting, and dry stuffing are mere trifles when we consider our enormous blessings: home, friends, family, health, country, religion, food, and nature to name a few. Still, if you notice what makes your traditions, your holidays, your get-togethers feel right, you'll begin to appreciate your culture. And when you ask who made these gifts possible, who tilled, who planted the seeds for your rich harvest, there you will find your heritage. To whom all thanks belongs.

You're Invited! (Garden Potluck, Contests & Activities)

Season Update!

Amazing what can happen when we work together! We've put in at least 700 hours and so far have grown over 800 pounds of food. We've only scratched the surface with tomatoes and have yet to harvest melons and winter squash. This past Saturday garden workers enjoyed 15 pounds of produce: potatoes, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, squash, kale, onions, cucumbers, chard, green beans, corn, parsley and basil. Many of those items made it into my annual homegrown stew (backyard hen too!).

You can show off your garden-inspired foods at our FALL FEST POTLUCK gathering on Saturday, September 21st, 6-8pm at the garden. We will have children's activities, a brief program to recognize helpers, contests, and you can check out our giant pumpkins! But most of all, just come enjoy yourselves at the height of our growing season.

Up the Wazoo!

Whatever a wazoo is, I'm pretty sure we have squash, cucumbers and weeds up it. These cute little helpers are showing off our harvest (ten shares) from July 20th. Since then, the squash and melon plants have doubled and tripled in size, and so have the weeds. Members pay $25 per year for first dibs on produce, and they pick it up after working on Wednesday evenings or Saturday mornings. But guest volunteers may share in the surplus. Otherwise it goes to the Food Bank, or grows into something the size of a wazoo.

Pioneer Day Free Family Activity

 We had a nice event! Pictured are Rose Park residents planting potatoes (a tradition that gives tangibility to the Mormon pioneer experience). Also, a couple of brave helpers played an old-fashioned game called a "stick pull." Participants took home garden cucumbers, we heard from the founder, Scott Steenblik, about the history of his family in Rose Park and how the garden started, we made butter and chased a couple cute chicks.

 

 
Join Us For Our…

Pioneer Day Celebration in the Garden

 Wednesday July 24^th, 2013

6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.

History of Rose Park

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Old-Fashioned Fun, Food & Games

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Traditional Seed Planting

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Wholesome Family Experience

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Meet some cute chicks too!