winter eating
home-grown home cooking
I didn't grow enough for us to survive on all winter. Sure we have tomatoes left, canned and frozen both, but that's only because Leah hasn't been able to eat them. We did alright with garlic and haven't bought any since the harvest, but we're down to our last clove now. And never mind the rest of the stuff: all long gone. Thank heavens for civilization. I did, though manage to grow us some parsnips, which are wonderful storage crops, and while we're not eating them they're storing wonderfully down in the cellar. Yesterday evening I decided to bring some up and cook them into a quiche.
I didn't come up with the idea myself; I had seen a recipe somewhere, but couldn't find it when I went looking again. So I searched online and came up with this version, put online by the fine folks at a community garden in Dover, New Hampshire. It came out fine: parsnips are wonderful sweet addition to an egg pie. Of course, while the parsnips and the garlic for the quiche were ours, the eggs were from Chip-In, since our hens aren't laying in all this cold and dark. And the corn was from a can, boo.
Besides the parsnips, garlic, and tomatoes—oh, and some pickles too—we also still have lots of butternut squash. Here's a picture of how many we had around the middle of November, after eating a few and giving a few more away.
many pounds
Mostly we make soup with em. The night before last I made soup and used up the last big onion we grew (and by "big" I mean "regular-sized"), but that doesn't count because we've bought many many onions in between harvest and now... we just happen to have been all out of the store kind when I went to look for one. I also made one squash pizza, and some plain mashed squash. But with all that bounty sitting there on the counter, we really need to broaden the repertoire! Squash curry, maybe?
This afternoon I asked the boys, "If we had a farm, what would you like to have on it?" Harvey didn't take long at all to answer, "tomatoes!" Zion said, "animals," and when pressed for details offered, "chickens... and horses and cows." Harvey is the one who's on my side here, clearly! As a reward I told him I'd give him even more space to grow in But they both enjoyed posing with the squashes back in November: here's Harvey with the biggest one and Zion with the smallest. They were being very silly and the light was low; this is the best picture out of many.
the main problem was that Zion wouldn't hold his still; Harvey didn't have much choice!
Oh I know! What about a squash pie—like a pumpkin pie, but with squash? Any other ideas?
comments
Danny, what amazing butternuts!! We eat the seeds roasted, as you probably do too, but I suppose that's not going to get anyone very far with the cold you're having. When the butternut is roasted and mashed up with a bit of rosemary, it becomes our staple pasta sauce for part of the year (the other parts of the year, we have tomato based sauces or pesto- we're currently in pesto season, waiting for the tomatoes to be fully in season)
Yes, pasta sauce! Leah has made one with coconut milk and nuts, but of course coconut milk will never be local around here. Rosemary is good, growing as it does in the kitchen this time of year; I used rosemary on the pizza and in the egg pie both.
It's actually really good cubed and put in chili... It would definitely work in the chili recipe you made on New Years
Chili, yes... thanks!