Winter Squash Recipes

It's becoming ingrained in me that a change in weather means a change in the food that I eat. Just like I bring out my scarf and boots for the winter, I also start to dream about all the new soups I can make, breads that can finally be baked in the cooler kitchen, and meals that warm my toes. Summer is the time to be outside having fun, and our meals reflect that. Cold soups, sandwiches, grains, and lots of tomatoes. Winter is different though. Winter brings people inside, gathered over warm soups, breads, sauteed chard, persimmon cookies, and baked winter squash.

Winter squash?!! What a funny thing. The tough outer skins and unusual shapes scare people away. Even the name is strange- a winter vegetable that you grow during the summer? But I love winter squash. It can make a great soup, you can stuff it to make a hearty meal, or you can drizzle some honey and raisins on it to make a great dessert. Not only that, but its good for you! Squash is high in potassium, vitamin A, and has tons of fiber in it. Check out some of the recipes below to see what you can do with that all of that funky squash and invite your friends over!

Butternut Squash Soup

• 1 pound of butternut squash
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion
• 6 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
• Nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Cut squash into 1-inch chunks. In large pot melt butter. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add squash and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove squash chunks with slotted spoon and place in a blender and puree. Return blended squash to pot. Stir and season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Roasted Squash

• 1-2 winter squash cut into quarters
• Drizzle of olive oil
• Spices ( I like nutmeg, and some paprika)

Cut your squash into quarters. Remove seeds and middle. Place in baking dish filled up a quarter of an inch with water. Place squash in oven at 400 and bake until soft. When squash is ready drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with your favorite spices. If you're in the mood for some sweet squash drizzle with honey and top with raisins.

A Pearable for Our Times

Here is the latest of the weekly columns I write for the Ukiah Daily Journal on local food issues. It is about the Alex Thomas pear orchards and what they can show us concerning the current state of agriculture in Mendocino County.

A Pearable for Our Times

I want you to please think about the Alex Thomas Pear Orchards with me for a moment.

I arrived in Ukiah just when the Alex Thomas Pear Orchards were being auctioned on the courthouse steps. It was a strange, dramatic, saga-rific introduction to agriculture in Mendocino County. How could a productive resource be so suddenly totally abandoned? How could there be such huge disconnects and discrepancies in relation to value? What happened? What is happening?

The Alex Thomas orchards total 600 acres over three parcels in Ukiah. I only know the parcel on Perkins, West of the Starbucks, where autumn, abandonment, and an insane economic ideology have had their way with the trees. Pests and blights settled into the orchard during its three year abandonment, resulting in an abatement process wherein the orchards need destroying. Piles of uprooted pear trees, fifteen feet tall and thirty feet wide, litter large fields. Their branches, trunks, and roots tangle with each other, making wild silhouettes against the sky, crying mercy until burns season begins and offering refuge to a world of insects, rodents, felines, and serpentines.

Now the orchards have been purchased and it looks like they will all be converted to vineyards. Thinking that process through cramps my brains.

Amongst other reasons, the Alex Thomas orchards went under because of the increasing difficulty of profitably growing pears in Mendocino County in the face of globalized agriculture markets. And so the county is increasingly converted to grapes, a crop that proves more lucrative in that system. But now even grapes are having a hard time in our current crisis of hypercapitalism. Around 30% of Mendocino grapes have not yet been sold this season. There is a wine glut.

So: we have grapes because it was hard to turn a profit on pears, apples, and the many other things that can grow in Mendocino County, but now the profitability of wine grapes seems increasingly uncertain.

The Alex Thomas orchards didn’t stop producing pears after that market shunned them, but they fell to the ground and rotted while people went hungry in our community. Those trees ripped out of the ground are going to go up in a pointless flaming inferno while people shiver in their houses, in need of firewood.

Is the magic of the market serving our best interests? Is it allocating our resources to efficiently produce social welfare? Does it seem prudent to keep on capitulating to the global agriculture markets, or does it see prudent to put a little more thought into cultivating, as consumers and co-producers, an agriculture that can feed the people that live here? Do we want to muster the gumption to try something different?

I’ve heard that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. I’m not suggesting the end of capitalism. But I am suggesting we exercise our imaginations more and envision the future we want for agriculture in Mendocino County, and then work towards it. Some might call me idealistic or naïve. That’s fine. I’ve seen enough to know that the system is broken, and that we can either choose to let the system keep dictating Mendocino County’s agriculture, or we can get together and get creative and cultivate an agriculture in Mendocino County that balances bringing monetary wealth into the community with growing the food we need and want to be a healthy and vital people. What would that alternative system look like? Can we do it? What can we start doing now to move in that direction, towards an agriculture that feeds the community instead of only an insatiable, volatile global market?

Jaxon Keys ran the ranch

Thanks to everyone who helped support The Gardens Project by participating in the run walk last Sunday! We enjoyed some great food, awesome company, and some fast runners. With support from Jaxon Keys and our athletic community members we raised over $1,000 to help develop and support school and community gardens. Click on the picture of the starting line to see more pictures of the event.

Willits Farm To School

Local, Organic, Tomato sauce for the Willits Unified School District

Although the season is winding down, harvests continue to pour in at Brookside Elementary School Farm, and the new farm to school program is well underway! Every Tuesday and Thursday, Antonia Partridge, the farm manager, and a crew of volunteers picks produce from the 1-acre organic farm tucked into the back corner of the athletic field at Brookside Elementary School. The tomatoes are just booming! We have Amish Paste, Roma, several heirloom varieties, and lots of cherry tomatoes (black cherry, sweet million, yellow pear, and sungolds). Yum! On Tuesday, volunteers picked 68 pounds of Roma and paste tomatoes, 23 pounds of heirloom slicers, 38 pounds of cherry tomatoes, 14 pounds of cucumbers, 21 pounds of squash and zucchini, 4 pounds of broccoli, and 4 pounds of mixed greens, such as chard and kale.

Most of the produce is then taken to Little Lake Grange, where another fantastic group of volunteers wash the produce, make fresh tomato sauce, and can it using glass Mason jars. So far we’ve canned over 100 quarts of pasta sauce! This sauce, along with washed cherry tomatoes and sliced cucumbers, is delivered to the school district so that Willits schools can add in farm-fresh, healthy, organic food to their lunch offerings. Way to go Willits!

-Written by Alison Petro

We ♥ B.E.A.N. Healthy!

Local teens are visiting elementary schools and teaching kids about eating healthy foods.

Eighteen eager and enthusiastic teens have begun their training for the BEANS program (Better Eating, Activity, and Nutrition for Students). The teens pictured here are the Willits team... there are also teams in Fort Bragg and Ukiah. Training topics have ranged from garden tours, to fruit and veggie tasting, to knife and food safety. After their initial training is complete, they will present interactive nutrition and cooking lessons over the course of this school year to kids throughout Mendocino County.

Their mission: to get kids eating more fruits and vegetables every day.

What a great way to make a difference in our local community!

BEANS is grant-funded through the USDA and is administered by NCO’s Gardens Project. Last year, BEANS teen peer educators reached over 450 students in after-school programs in Fort Bragg, Ukiah, and Willits. The teens also provided taste-tests at local farmers’ markets and food banks during this past summer. We look forward to continued success this year!

Plant Starts Abound!

The Gardens Project would like to give a big THANK YOU to Lovin' Blooms, Mendocino College Greenhouse, the Mendocino County Master Gardeners, and the Ukiah Garden Club for their generous donation of plant starts, which were distributed to school and community gardens through out the County. School gardens recently had their budgets drastically reduced, so this donation was crucial. The picture above is only a small fraction of the plant starts that were donated. In total, they would have covered all the ground you can see in the picture! Thank you to all the community-minded individuals who made this happen.

"Pizza" and "Healthy"... Not an oxymoron!

HEALTHY PIZZA!
As crazy as Americans are for pizza, few ever dare to make it at home. That's truly a shame, because the pizza we turn to is overpriced, awash in empty calories, and ultimately not all that delicious.

Anyone can do better in their home by combining a handful of garden-fresh ingredients and following a few simple steps. And believe it or not, pizza made the right way can make for a truly well-balanced meal. So preheat your oven, break out the pizza cutter, and get ready to bake the best pizza of your life with our 4 Easy Rules for Delicious Pizza.

Pizza Rule #1
The Hotter, the Better
The higher the heat, the better. True Italian pizzas are cooked in about 2 minutes in 1,000 degree Fahrenheit ovens. Preheat your oven for 30 minutes at 500 degrees Fahrenheit (the max temp for most home ovens) for a light, crispy crust.
Pizza Rule #2
Fire Up the Grill
Nothing better approximates the smoky char of a wood-burning oven than a grill. Have your ingredients ready, slide the raw dough directly onto the hot grates, and grill until lightly charred, about 4 minutes. Flip and immediately add sauce and cheese, then cover the grill and wait for the cheese to melt.
Pizza Rule #3
Go Easy on the Toppings
Pizza isn't about how much cheese you can cram onto a slice; it's about the subtle interplay of bread, sauce, cheese, and topping. Don't use more than 2 ounces of cheese and a few pieces of meat or vegetable per slice.
Pizza Rule #4
Break Out of the Box
Nontraditional ingredients—barbecue sauce, chorizo, pistachios—can elevate a humble pie to new heights.

HERE'S HOW YOU CAN GET STARTED...

Whole Wheat and Honey Pizza Dough
Ingredients
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (not too hot, or the yeast will be killed)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
3. In a large bowl combine flour, wheat germ and salt. Make a well in the middle and add honey, olive oil, and yeast mixture. Stir well to combine, then form it into a ball. Cover and set in a warm place to rise for about 10 minutes.
4. **Optional: Make-Ahead Directions** (If you’d like to keep the dough for later, wrap the dough in plastic wrap after it has risen, and store it in the refrigerator. Before using, let the dough sit out for about 10 minutes to come to room temperature.)
5. Roll dough on a floured pizza pan and poke a few holes in it with a fork.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 3-5 minutes, or until desired crispiness is achieved. Remove the crust from the oven.
7. Top with sauce or pesto, light sprinkling of cheese, and a few veggies and/or meat.
8. Bake again (or grill) until toppings are hot and cheese is melted.
9. ENJOY!

If You Don’t Have Time to Make the Dough… Use:

* Flour tortillas for a thin crust
* Sourdough english muffins for mini-pizzas
* A whole wheat pita pocket
* Whole grain bagels
* A toasted half-loaf of sourdough french bread