Box 13

Hello hello all, the beautiful weather keeps on coming as students return to school and another marker of the upcoming fall appears in your box: winter squash.  Kobocha Sunshine is her name and she is a personal favorite of the squashes.  I typically cut my winter squash in half, place in the oven inside-up (this prevents the meat from becoming soggy and in some cases will create a nice crust on the surface) between 375 or 425 for 40 minutes (or until you can insert a fork smoothly). The longer you bake it the sweeter it will become.  Caramelized onions and apples are excellent companions, or blended into a creamy soup with rice and kale.  Some people like to remove the skin after baking, but I find it to be a flavorfully enjoyable part or the squash eating experience.

In the box:

So, despite our chronic talk of fall, summer is still here: there are still more melons, the tomatoes keep coming, and salad mix has returned!  Full shares also have edible flowers to go with their salad or to garnish another dish.  Merigolds are the carnation like flower (usually orange) and are best if the petals are sprinkled in a salad or on top of a dish.  Their have a mild floral (for lack of a better word) taste.  The nasturtiums are the  irregular (only symmetrical if folded one way) flowers.  I recommend eating the nasturtiums whole including the stem, the ovule (the base near where the petals meet the stem–actually the womb of the flower where the fruit/seed would develop from) is the tastiest part.  The lily-pad-like petals that come with the flowers are the leafs of the nasturtium and carry that same peppery sweet taste.

Enjoy!