Pumpkins and Gourds

There as a display of carved pumpkins at the Botanical Garden at Penn State when we were there last weekend but I enjoyed the piles of whole pumpkins, squashes, and gourds more – so that is what I photographed. Some were stacked like cairns, others were arranged on shallow stairs, or drifted around pots of fall blooming plants. This is the kind of display I associate with fall as much as piles of raked leaves!

Sometimes their shape and texture makes them a stand out among all the rest.

My favorite display was in the children’s part of the Botanical Garden: a big bowl full of gourds and squashes. See the tubes mounted on the frame? Those are kaleidoscopes. There were steps so that even a small child could take a look!

Here’s the view through one of the kaleidoscopes when the bowl was still. I didn’t attempt a picture when the bowl was moving. What a great active sculpture for a Children’s Garden!

CSA Week 7

I used up a lot of the week 6 squash by making 2 batches of zucchini bread – one as little cakes which I have been enjoying for breakfast.

I also used the week 5 bunch of carrots to make a carrot cake. I didn’t make icing for the cake – so it will work for breakfast as well. Needless to say, with only my husband and I around more than half the baked goods are now in the freezer! Otherwise I did well eating up the veggies from week 6 – only some carrots and cucumbers were left when I went to pick up the next share.

The medium share at our CSA this week was ‘heavy’ both in terms of size (two bags again) and weight (included 6 pounds of squash and 3 pound of cucumbers). Starting up at the upper left corner and working around the picture below clockwise: cucumbers, onions, carrots, summer squash, chard, basil, lettuce, and kohlrabi. The hotter days will reduce the greens in a few weeks but now we have plenty for salad stuff: lettuce, carrot tops, basil, and chard.

I’ve already decided to shred the squash and freeze it in 2 cup portions. 6 pounds is a lot of squash! It will take up less space to freeze in that form than baking it already into zucchini bread to freeze. I might do something similar with the carrots although I haven’t gotten tired of carrot raisin salad yet.

CSA Week 5

It was another two bag week at the Gorman Farm CSA this week….another good week of eating skewed toward the veggie side. Starting in the upper left of the picture below there are: 2 kohlrabi (roots and leaves), 2 pounds of summer squash (I got 3 yellow and one green), cone head cabbage, scallions, 1 pound of cucumbers, 1 pound of broccoli, arugula, beets (roots and leaves), carrots with tops, and kale. The scallions were from the overage table where I could have gotten more greens (collard greens or chard) but I still have both left from last week.

Not the variety of leaf shapes and sizes between the kohlrabi leaves (large), the beet (red veins) and the arugula (convoluted margins). The beet leaves and arugula will be eaten with the carrot tops in salads. I am still trying to decide whether to make the kohlrabi leaves into chips just like I intend to do with the kale.

After I had cleaned up from the first round of prep of the veggies into plastic bins, I found this tiny leaf. I think it might have been from the kohlrabi. It was only about an inch long....very delicate.

I have been eating a lot of the stems but decided to start freezing more of them so that I will skew what I eat now to leaves that will not survive freezing. The stems have to be cooked (steamed, stir fried, or put into soups) because they are so tough – they work well coming from the freezer. In fact, freezing may reduce the cooking required.