More Winter Treasures

Winter Squash

Now that we've moved well into winter from fall, the local vegetables and other foods that we have become especially precious. This is our season's supply of squash from our CSA, minus the ones we've already eaten. In previous years, I've often given away much of the winter squash we received, but this year... this year I needed to rethink. They are treasures of nutrition and I need to find ways to incorporate them into our diet.

Yesterday I baked the large pumpkin in the picture, which gave us over 5 pint jars of pureed pumpkin and a nice bowl of crispy roasted pumpkin seeds. The seeds are especially welcome since we're not eating any crunchy snack foods. The pumpkin can be used in soups, pies, or puddings, or the pumpkin waffles (see the Pumpkin post) which I'm going to fix for Christmas breakfast.
NOTE: If you are going to can pumpkin, you need to use a pressure canner to avoid the risk of botulism. Pumpkin is a low-acid food. What I did was to pack into wide-mouth pint jars and put in the freezer.

Other favorites:

Grilled Delicata: Cut a delicata squash in half the long way, scoop out the seeds with a spoon (and roast them; they are Delicious!) Now, take your big knive and cut the squash lengthwise into 10 to 12 long pieces. You can grill these in a heavy skillet in a bit of olive oil, adding herbs if you like. Turn every few minutes so each side gets roasted. The delicata cooks in maybe ten minutes this way, not needing the oven. It is done when fork-tender. The skins become tender when it is cooked.

Quick Southwestern Stew: Have some cooked beans on hand, pintos or anasazi or other type; they're good cooked with a little onion and garlic. Cut up a larger squash, such as buttercup, butternut, kabocha, or similar. Peel and cut into 1" chunks. Simmer in water to nearly cover until tender (only takes 10 minutes or so).
Stir in the beans and heat all together, stirring. The squash will partly break down to make the sauce. Serve with salsa and a little grated cheese. Yum.

Meyer Lemon Tree for Christmas

My dear husband bought me a Meyer Lemon tree for Christmas from Fossil Creek Nursery, in a large pot. The sweet thing has one large green lemon on it, and many buds coming. We plan to keep it in the house during the colder weather, in a sunny window, and put it on the patio in the warm days of summer. I think I will have to pollinate the blossoms myself to get fruit.
You can see the green lemon in the picture, behind a few leaves.

They also had lovely grapefruit trees in pots with grapefruit hanging on them. And I got a miniature tangerine tree too, not blooming at the moment but a beautiful strong plant.

It occurred to me as I ran out of lemon juice that citrus is one thing I'd miss: lemons in particular. So, now I have a little treasure: my own Local Lemon (with, hopefully, many more to come, each one precious).

Very Local Herb Garden

I have herbs growing outdoors here, thyme, oregano, rue, sage, and others. I usually did not collect them and use them, which seems strange to me now. Now, with new eyes, I decided to get some house-plant herbs. Why not grow delicious fresh herbs in my sunny window? They can go outside in the summer for a refresher course of sun. I can use them judiciously meanwhile, in soups, salads, vegetables, etc.

I went to Rabbit Shadow Herb Farm on Hiway 402 east of Loveland. I am now the proud owner of two nice Rosemary plants, two small bay trees, a pot of thyme, a pot of (baby) parsley, a pot of Doone Valley lemon thyme, oregano, and a 4" shrub of lemon verbena. Well, some of them will have to grow up a bit to be able to stand the harvest. The thyme and rosemary are big enough now. I will use a few sprigs each in the oven-roasted root vegetables we'll have with our Christmas dinner.

Here you can see one of the rosemary plants, with beautiful pale-blue blooms on every branch, and one of the baby bay trees. Behind these plants is the olive tree I bought last summer (maybe silly; I'll be surprised to see an olive from it), and a jade plant. The herbs integrate well with the other house plants. Why not grow something good to eat, in addition to the tropical shrubs we usually have as house plants.

As we move into the cold dark period of the year, my focus for fruits, vegetables, and herbs tightens in to what I'm growing inside, what we have stored in the garage and other cool places, and the dried fruit I have in the cupboard. There is a feeling of gratitude for these foods, which will keep us healthy and well fed during the winter, until next summer's bounty.