Today, November 9th, we had our first good frost. It wasn't hard enough to knock all the vines down, but it did hit the walnut tress. This morning, the leaves rained down in the back yard until, by noon, the trees were bare.
We moved the last of the winter squash into the basement to cure for two weeks before they go into the root cellar. We have five different kinds — pumpkin, butternut, acorn, buttercup, and some light green thing that sort of looks familiar. It doesn't look like all that many, laying out on the basement floor, but I counted them and there are 95.
To finish these by next June, we need to eat over three a week. Since each squash is about two recipes worth, that works out to squash almost every single day. I'm not that fond of straight squash, and neither are my kids — and I wish it had a better name, "squash" just doesn't sound that good. We'll give some to the cows, but the rest is food for us. I need to find some good recipes.
Our list of things to get done by winter seems to go on and on. Yesterday, we got the stakes pulled out of the garden and put away. With this red stake puller, they just slide out of the ground. It's one of my husband's favorite tools.
Every evening we continue to work on the dry beans. Reading aloud keeps things interesting. Even the littlest one was able to get quite a few beans done. His little face lights up as he pulls out a bean and says, "I did it!"
There is a monotony to this food work. Open pod, remove bean, repeat. Open pod, remove bean, repeat... again and again and again. It reminds me of the time the kids argued they shouldn't clean their room because it just gets dirty again. In a moment of inspiration, I responded, "well, we feed you and you just get hungry again." We never heard that argument again.
The work is monotonous. Eating squash every day for nine months will be monotonous. But then all eating could be called monotonous; you do it every day, after all. Whereas I would say that eating is one of the enduring pleasures of life. So is sleeping! Perhaps I am finding that this work we repeat over and over encapsulates an enduring pleasure as well.
I heard this tip from someone, but I don't grow squash and so didn't find it useful. Maybe it would be useful for you...This person had an old iron bedspring in their basement/cellar to keep squash on during the winter. She claimed that the bottoms of the fruit would not spoil by storing them this way. Anyway, FYI. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I believe the light green ones are sweetmeat squash, or so I have been told!