Winter Sunshine Squash - local food, great stew

One of the reasons that I love living in Vermont so much is the accessibility to fresh, organic foods. I am a foodie, that is true, but I’m a very picky foodie in that I much prefer items that have been raised with the idea of sustaining the earth, not hurting it. I also prefer to have my foods travel as short a distance as possible from the farm to my kitchen.

Many of you reading this will have no such ability. For you produce is picked before it has ripened, and begins to degrade even before it makes it to your local grocery store. You will never know the fabulous taste of tender greens, just picked asparagus, or sun-ripened and warmed tomatoes. Even if you purchase organic produce, which will taste better I assure you, it still is not like that which I am blessed to be able to have.

My husband and I purchase a share in a CSA. That stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and there are many such farms here in Vermont. The way it works is, you purchase a seasonal share and pay for it in full up-front at the beginning of the season. Then once a week, for however many weeks your share covers, you get a bag full of fresh produce. There are many varieties of CSAs available; some include locally produced items like honey, butter, or bread; some include locally raised meats or eggs; some even allow you to choose your own produce from bins at the farm. The CSA we belong to, Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, Vermont ( http://petesgreens.com/ ) has several variations available and runs year round! We are lucky indeed.

Last week, as part of our share we got a Winter Sunshine Squash. As you can see, it resembles a pumpkin. The flesh inside and the shell out are a deep orange color. However, they do not get as big as the Jack o’Lantern pumpkins most folks are used to seeing this time of year. It was our first time having this type of squash, and as Chuck doesn’t really care for winter squash, I had to figure out what to do with it. As I mentioned above, I’m a bit of a foodie, and also, I admit, I have just a touch of geek about me, so off to the internet I went.

One of my favorite recipe websites is http://www.epicurious.com because you can type in the ingredients you have on hand, or want to use, and it will suggest recipes. There are other websites out there that allow this as well, but this is the one I use most often. As we are both gluten sensitive and try to keep sugar reduced, I was looking for recipes that used winter squash without the use of sugar. Quinoa with Moroccan Winter Squash and Carrot Stew fit the bill.

It called for Butternut Squash, but truly any variety of winter squash will substitute provided you wish to spend the time to peel it. That is probably the hardest part to preparing a winter squash; the peel. I use my big carving knife as well as my small paring knife to prepared squash. The ingredients were simple: onion, squash, carrots, canned diced tomatoes, garlic, paprika, cumin, coriander, ground ginger, salt, black pepper, turmeric, and cayenne. The quinoa, which is so easy to prepare anyway (if you haven’t tried it you really should!), was jazzed up with grated carrots, minced onion, garlic, turmeric, salt and mint.

As you can see from this picture I’m a “mise en place” sort of girl. I like to get everything ready before I actually start cooking. It all went together easily and quickly after all the items were prepared. I reduced the amount of cayenne from ½ teaspoon to ¼ teaspoon and, in retrospect, both Chuck and I feel it could have been reduced more. The squash is so naturally, gently flavored that we feel the heat was too much; but to each their own.

Here’s a picture of the finished dish, along with the side I had prepared of roasted turnips and shallots with olive oil, salt, and pepper. If you are interested in preparing this, you can find the recipe at: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Quinoa-with-Moroccan-Winter-Squash-and-Carrot-Stew-233714

To find better, fresher, and more local food for you and your family cruise on over to Local Harvest: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ You will learn more about Community Supported Agriculture and perhaps locate one near you! Bon appetit!