The Last Winter Squash

It has been another day of snow showers and cold.  It seemed like the perfect day to bring the very last Waltham Butternut  squash up from the basement.  It falls to Ed to carve up the squash.  It takes  a big  heavy knife and some muscle to cut the neck of the squash into uniform three-quarter inch slices.  We got our 4 cups of diced squash without getting down to the seed cavity.

This squash was in perfect condition.  Perhaps we could have waited, but just on the off chance winter has been hanging around until my winter squash were all used, today was the day.

Dinner made in my red pot is a cold weather pleasure.  The oven warms the kitchen and the aroma of dinner cooking makes it so everyone is already salivating when dinner comes from the oven.  I chose Tandoori Salmon with Kale.  It is a favorite from Elizabeth Yarnell's book.  I use a lot more squash and more kale than she does and we like it served with brown rice. 

Dinner looks great.  It's too bad the picture doesn't have that tantalizing aroma.  I'm not at all sorry to see the last of our winter squash.  I'm ready for the seasonal change, besides half of what's in the pot is waiting in the fridge for its encore performance. 

Last Squash

We tried something new last fall when we harvested the butternut squash.  Marian Morash recommended cutting the vine rather than the stem that holds fast to the squash.  Her reasoning was that the point where the stem joins the squash is commonly the weak point that allows decay to enter the squash.  We followed her directions and the last squash nearly made it to April.  This is the longest that the squash have remained in prime condition.

This is the condition of the squash when it was brought into the kitchen from the basement.  It has yet to be washed.  The dried vine branching out from the stem makes an interesting looking sculpture.  Our past habit was to simply cut the stem at harvest.  Marian's method greatly increases the distance between the cuts and the fruit.  We plan to harvest the pumpkins this way in the coming year.  They got the old stem cut and the last of them went directly to the compost pile weeks ago.

Butternut squash is our favorite for a number of reasons.  Its taste is fantastic but look at the amount of fruit absolutely free of seeds and the sticky strings that accompany them.  This is as close to a hassle free garden product as one can get.

Slicing away the washed skin is all that is needed to prepare the food for the pot.  The thickness of the slices and the size of the cubes match the specifications of the recipe.  Salmon, kale, garlic and yogurt blended very well with the squash.  We will not have that meal again until the new crop is harvested.  For these special meals we use our garden produce.  That is a slight exaggeration since the fresh kale came from the grocery store.  Someone else caught the fish but the squash is the heart of this meal and it was grown here.