The weather is finally starting to cool and show signs of the changing season!

This year, we will be hosting a Silent Auction on 

Saturday, November 10 during the entire market from 8 am - noon. We will have fabulous local gifts making the Silent Auction a great way to kick off any holiday shopping you may have to get done. Our Silent Auction will benefit our children's programming and Double Bucks food program.

We look forward to seeing you at market today and don't forget to ask your favorite farmers for Fall recipes and cooking tips!

Missives from a Market Farmer: Pepo on the Road 

Missives is a series of short articles by Judy Lessler, a DFM farmer, on the history, cultivation, and preparation of the items sold at market.

 

The scientific name for squash is Cucurbita pepo. After Columbus discovered the New World in 1492, it took almost no time for plants from this species to spread around the world. HS Harris describes it as "the most widely grown and polymorphic of the Cucurbita species." It includes many major groups-pumpkins, gourds, crook-necks, straight-necks, scallops (like patti-pans), acorns, vegetable marrow, zucchinis-so many varieties that sometimes they are appear to be separate species. The pepo spread so fast that the discovery of very old seeds in Asia was thought to be indication that wild, ancestral versions had arisen there separately. Later these were determined to be yet another cultivar developed from New World plants.

One of the ways scientists trace the spread of plants is by use of plant iconography, that is, depictions of plants in drawings and books. C. pepo's vast and rapid spread is attributed to the large size of the plants and fruit, fast growth rate, and its wide adaptation as a table food. C. pepo varieties appeared in a European herbal by Leonard Fuchs published in 1542, only 50 years after their discovery by Columbus.  However, even earlier, d'Annde de Bretange commissioned a Book of Hours, which was prepared between 1503 and 1508. A book of hours is a Christian prayer book used at the conical hour which are times of day set aside for prayer. Anne of Brittany was twice Queen of France; she married one French king and married another eight years after the first king died. She was very pious, and it's a good thing she was a queen. There are from 6 to 8 of conical hours precluding working people from achieving such a high level of piety.

Anne's book was truly a Grandes Heures. "  It was 476 pages including 49 full-page miniatures, 12 calendar pages with genre scenes of the months of the year, two pages of Anne's heraldic devices, and 337 pages with illuminated borders showing flowers and other plants." I illustrations of Cucurbita are in the illuminated borders. When Queen Anne commissioned her book, print books were increasing in popularity; however, Anne's  Grand Hours was done by hand. It remained in the collections of the royal family for generations into the future and its illustrations continue to be examined by scholars. Over the years, the accuracy of the nomenclature has become a topic of professional debate. However, the illustrations are outstanding. The book had a great deal of cachet then...and now. Here's a link to Anne's Pictures: Pictures for plants from  Grand Hours

Suggested Recipe.

I have been making this butternut squash recipe for decades. When I was in my 20's, I asked a friend for an easy recipe I could cook for a dinner party that might impress the man I was dating and his sophisticated, college-professor friends. I still have my first version, written in pencil on a piece of aged yellow-paper torn from a legal pad, now soiled by buttered fingers, spotted by drops of soup, creased, and faded. The soup was a hit, and the man later became my husband.

I now have the recipe saved on a hard drive out in the cloud. I had a bit of trouble finding it. Long past my 20's when I thought "bisque" had more cachet than "soup," I was searching for "squash soup" instead of "squash bisque" and could not find it. Finally I searched on winter squash and there it was but titled Butternut Squash Bisque.

There are many versions of this recipe out in cyberspace. Apparently, we are all back to talking about cream-of-tomato-soup rather than tomato-bisque because even Martha Stewart's version is called   Apple Butternut Squash Soup rather than bisque. But she had to go to jail for a while. Jail time probably reduces one's tendency to search for false cachet.  

Butternut Squash Bisque-Judy's Yellow Legal Pad Version

6 servings

 

1 onion sliced

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon curry powder

11/2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cut up

1 cup apple, pear, or combination peeled and cubed

4 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup half and half (optional) 

 

Sauté onion in butter.  Add curry powder and sauté briefly.  Add squash, fruit, and broth and simmer until squash is tender.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Puree in food processor or blender.   Stir in half-and-half if desired.