Are We Tired of Squash Yet?

Before we wander too deep into a philosophical discussion about squash, I'll answer the question from my perspective. Nope, not yet. As I poked around yesterday to see how things were doing in the heat wave, I found a yellow zucchini. This was a nice little treasure because that side of the garden hasn't been watered in a few weeks. Everything around this squash plant has been finished for the season, so it didn't make sense to drag the hose over there to water it. It is showing just how tough and strong it is by not only surviving this man-made drought, but also producing more of its kind. I "celebrated" this discovery by seasoning with salt, pepper, oregeno and olive oil. A few minutes on the grill and it was a very tasty partner to the nice NY steak known as "last night's dinner".

I'm seriously considering a new cause to champion and that is to educate the masses about the benefits of growing squash in their gardens. They are very easy to grow and produce an insane amount of food compared to how little effort the gardner needs to do for them. I know people get tired of eating squash a few weeks into the summer, but the solution is to mix up how it is prepared. Here is a list of some the ways zucchini was used this past summer here at Farmville.

• Baked into cookies with walnuts and dried fruit


• Grilled with light seasonings


• Fried Tempura style


• Stuffed with meat and cheese


• Diced and sauteed with garlic


• Raw with ranch dressing


• Tossed with pasta, garlic, tomatoes and basil

As you can see, if you arm yourself with a handful of recipes, you can enjoy summer squash for as long as your plant keeps its end of the deal.

The other type of squash we planted was the hard shell or winter types. We planted acorn, butternut, and delicata (not to be confused with Delicato Winery where I bought grape juice this past weekend to make into wine, but that will be another post). Also, closely related are the pumpkins. They are in the same plant family and can be used in the same recipes as most of the other winter squashes. Much like the zucchini plants, the pumpkins and winter squash will take care of themselves for the most part. You just need to make sure they are well watered early on so their roots spread out and grow deep.

The winter squash and pumpkins are ready to start harvesting now, but will also keep for a few weeks longer outside in the garden. By Halloween, the plan is to have them all picked and stored in a cool, dry location inside. If luck is on our side, they should keep until late Winter.

In anticipation of the mega-squash harvest, I fould two cookbooks devoted entirely to squash recipes. These are going to come in handy because the assistant winemaker at Farmville is very fond of home cooked dishes from the garden. The next couple of weeks will be pretty busy with crushing grapes and her help will be most appeciated in getting some grapes picked in the Sierra Foothills in early October. Her reward for this manual labor will be a dinner made up of various squash recipes. Some of the ideas so far are:

• Butternut squash soup with pesto


• Roasted acorn squash with pistachios


• Pumpkin and beef stew


• Pumkin pie


• Winter squash rissotto


• Pumpkin stuffed raviolis

I think when you take the time to search out and try different recipes, you can enjoy the bounty a squash garden produces almost all year. Considering how easy it is to grow and how healthy it is in your diet, one has to wonder why more folks aren't growing it.