Goats Like Squash, Too!

Yes, our obsession with growing winter squash seems to have rubbed off on our animals.  I make part of the food the dogs eat: a big 'boil-up' of rice, ground pork or beef, oil, garlic and a vegetable.  They've had winter squash in the mixture with no objections.  The house cat has had a little spoonful of the same mixture with similar results (Blondie has been known to carefully eat around every single pea).  Chickens go absolutely nuts for the seeds of any winter squash and will peck at the flesh.  So why not goats?

 We had some of the bigger Hubbard squash damaged on a very cold night earlier in the week.  They were outside, under tarps but still developed some water-soaked spots on the skin - totally edible but not so pretty.  So, Farmer Man decided to roll a big thirty pounder into the goat pen; if nothing else they might play with it a bit.  We have, through the summer, offered the goats some summer squash and once they got the hang of it, they liked it.  Goats only have teeth on the bottom of their mouth, the top is a plate all about grinding leaves and twigs.  It seemed difficult for the goats to take a bite of a zucchini unless we broke it apart for some rough edges.  The large Hubbard proved an instant attraction; fortunately it had gotten dinged getting in place and one, Goldie of course, started to nibble.  Her interest led to the full attention of the other two goatlings and soon they were all gnawing heartily!  They love the skin, chomped through the meat and nibbled delicately at the seeds!  The nice thing is it amused them the whole afternoon, and saved us from the increasingly fruitless search for leafy twigs.  Having a stash of squash will be good for everyone this winter!

Talking Potatoes and Squash in Hartney!

The Hartney Horticultural Society invited us back this year for a fall vegetable talk.  We'd done a squash night last year that was great fun!  This year, we thought to focus on potatoes and baking with winter squash.  We've got quite a unique collection of potato varieties: twenty eight kinds!  Figuring that everyone has had a basic red, white and baking potato we took five of our more unique and rare varieties.  Monday afternoon we steamed up German Butterball (like Yukon Gold, but yummier), Russian Blue the all purple potato, Alaska Sweetheart which is all red potato (yes, skin and flesh is pink/red), one of our favorite fingerlings Linzertans Delicatese and the rare fingerling Pink Fir Apple.   We also baked a butternut squash and Hubbard.  The evening was hosted at the delightful Red Door Cafe in Hartney, so we had access to a kitchen.

Farmer Man gave a little info on growing potatoes and different kinds.  We warmed up our five kinds and served out tastes one by one, just plain so that people could really experience the flavor.  German Butterball and the Pink Fir Apple seemed the favorites of the evening!  Next, we talked a bit about winter squash and baking with it.  We served up a taste of butternut and Hubbard plain, simply roasted.  Then, we offered a taste of a loaf made with Kabocha Japanese pumpkin, and Claris from the Red Door offered tastes of pie and cheesecake made with Boston Marrow, a relative of Hubbard that we had gotten to her earlier in the week.  I think everyone had a chance to try something they'd never eaten before, which we love!  And, we shared with everyone just how easy it is to bake with real pumpkins, or hubbards, or butternuts......

Frost!

The zucchini this morning!

Truck of Hubbard

 Yikes! Yesterday, Tuesday, frost was predicted and for today, September 14, hard frost is predicted.  Yesterday being CSA day, it was hard to balance getting ready for CSA and preparing for frost.  We concentrated yesterday on the really delicate things like summer squash, tomatoes, basil and cucumbers.  Fortunately, our employee Henry was able to come back later in the day and, while we were meeting our CSAers and holding the wee Neighborhood Country Market, he was picking tomatoes like crazy.  He did an awesome job of picking and sorting, so that the golden are together, the paste types are together and so on!  We still have to 'deal' with them all, picking out the ripe, storing the unripe properly - but that will be another day.  There's something, roughly, like three hundred pounds of tomatoes out there!

After returning home from CSA, about 7:30 PM, we had a bite to eat, unloaded the truck and then Farmer Man put on his head lamp and went to harvest all the cantaloupe and watermelon.  He was out until well after dark.  It actually got colder than predicted: about -2 C with a 'feels like' value of -5 C (about 28 F, feeling like 22 F).  We woke up to frost on the grass and roof, and shrivelled plants all over!  Now, for those of you not in Manitoba, perhaps not even in Canada, frost on September 13th is not bad for us!  It has been known to come in August!  It has also been known to come as late as the end of October, so it was inevitable, but still too early for any gardener!  It was a harsh one, too; this was no light touch of frost!

Up this morning and back at it with an even colder evening predicted for tonight!  We had figured that root vegetables would all be all fine; winter squash could take one night, but probably not two of freezing temperatures.  Frost causes water-soaked areas where rot is more likely to start.  It wouldn't really affect the meat, but it makes them rather ugly and more prone to quick deterioration.  Our great selection of winter squash is a mainstay of our Farmers Market business through to the end of October, so worth spending a little time!  We had Carissa and Henry coming to pick potatoes, as we are trying to finish that harvest and get potatoes cured so that we can sell bigger bags for winter storage.  We got that done in toques and scarves.  A little rest and a snack and we were off to the north field, which holds carving pumpkins, Sugar Pie pumpkin, Hubbard squash and the popular Butternut.  Our Butternut have done awesome this year, but few are ripe!  We loaded the back of the truck with Hubbard and the related heirloom Boston Marrow, as well as ten gorgeous Halloween pumpkins.  The bucket of the tractor was stuffed with Butternut.  The truck was unloaded into the garage, and we returned to the field and stuffed it again, this time with more Hubbard and Butternut!  It was an afternoon and evening of cutting stems, picking up squash and carrying them to the truck.  Some of the Hubbard and a couple of the Boston Marrow were well over thirty pounds!  I didn't carry any of them.....

Back at the house, a wee rest, and back out!  Farmer Man took the head lamp and the tractor and went up to the Sugar Pie pumpkins.  He dropped me, drop clothes and a few crates at the lower field of winter squash.  I harvested or covered Australian Blue Pumpkin, Spaghetti and Delicata squash.  The Kabocha and Buttercup will have to fend for themselves - there was no more daylight, energy or drop clothes!  There were still goats and chickens to put to bed.  Farmer Man returned with a bucket load of pumpkins, which are all just parked in the barn.  The last truck load of Butternut and Hubbard was backed up to the garage and covered; there was no energy for unloading.  Now, we wait and tomorrow we'll see what the night brought us!  

Hubbard Squash Soup!

'Tis the season for winter squash! We've had a great crop of Hubbard Squash this year; some of the best sizes we've ever gotten due to consistent rains. Farmer Man decided a nice soup was in order! Hubbard is an awesome winter squash; originating in South America, it is believed to have come to North America in the 1700's via the West Indies. It has dense, rich flesh, a little on the sweet side and somewhat nutty. It looks challenging, but is easier to deal with than you might think. Farmer Man's tip for cutting into any of the larger squash is to get a cleaver or large knife into the skin, than tap it down through the skin and flesh with a rolling pin. You could use a hammer or something, but your hits have to be a bit more precise: with something like a rolling pin you can't miss the knife. An elderly customer at the Farmers Markets' takes her large winter squashes and just throws them on the garage floor to break them up.

Farmer Man roasted the Hubbard first. Once cut in half, he scooped out the seeds and rubbed the exposed flesh with better. We roast ours facing up because we like the crispy edges to nibble on, and it's easier to tell when they are cooked! Roast until soft and the skin can be pierced with a fork. Our big squash took almost three hours to roast! We had some nice apples from Clayton Organic Orchards, and we roasted them, peeled, cored and quartered, with cinnamon until soft, about an hour for ours. Farmer Man removed the squash flesh from the skin, put it in a pot with cream and chicken stock and used the hand blender to puree it to a smooth consistency. Then he pureed in the apples, cooked bacon chopped fine, cinnamon, dried basil and oregano, salt. He added more stock and water to keep the consistency smooth. He simmered it until we were ready to eat. Yummy! So busy eating it I failed to get a picture (bad blogger, bad!) A nice dollop of sour cream was an excellent touch for serving - he used a chopstick to make a nice swirl design.