This story begins on Saturday October 29, when I decided I’d had enough of the big Banana squash taking up half of my work table. Banana squashes can grow big, very big, and this was the second largest to come out of the field. (The largest Banana squash ever had a brief career as a crowd pleaser at the Cumberland Market before succumbing to the knife at our annual members potluck.)

I washed the squash, a herculean task of its own given the weight, and wrestled it into the oven where it was gently baked (at 250°F) for several hours. I wasn’t aiming for very smushy, just manageable. Cooking the squash this way precludes any recipes that call for roasted squash but hey, there’s plenty more where that came from!

When the squash had cooled enough to handle I cut it open, scooped out the seeds and peeled it: I didn’t weigh the results but you can see in the picture on the right how much squash we were dealing with. Oh, boy.

First recipe: mini Pumpkin Tarts for a Co-op meeting on Saturday night (No comments please on how farmers need to get out more!) I don’t normally go for such luxurious recipes but the tarts were a big hit.

Sunday was the big manure-shovelling day: since we don’t currently have horses on the farm, we have an arrangement with our neighbours who give us their manure in exchange for hauling it. The tractor is very helpful for loading the manure into the trailer, but once here we have to shovel it out by hand. No use trying to keep your boots clean, just in you go and shovel!

Between loads I managed to put together a decent lunch: Autumn Pumpkin Loaf and Harvest Stew. That went down pretty well with the crew. And we have a beautiful compost pile, picture to come in another post.

We finished manure hauling and other assorted jobs outside rather late, but I was determined to make a Squash Lasagna for supper. This is a family favourite, even though it’s a vegetarian recipe and the guys are all meat eaters. In one of the gardens there was a rather tenacious bunch of swiss chard that had grown back after its bed was tilled and seeded with a cover crop. I picked a bowl full of those leaves just as the dark was settling, and headed indoors to cook. We were all famished by the time the lasagna was ready, so it didn’t have its picture taken!

Having spent most of the weekend outside, I was determined on Monday to finally make the Pumpkin Cheesecake that I’d promised as a birthday gift to my daughter-in-law, Joëlle. It was my day to stay with the ailing grandchildren (chickenpox), and they were so eerily quiet that I could get some cooking done. For this recipe I wanted the pumpkin to be as smooth as possible, so I pureed some in the blender. But then I forgot to measure it, and added the other ingredients to the pumpkin in the blender instead of mixing it a bowl… I’m thinking the cake must have been less sweet than the recipe intended, but I heard that it was pretty good.

Tuesday supper was Pumpkin Mushroom Soup, which we really enjoyed.

On Wednesday I made a batch of Pumpkin Cookies – these are plain, unadorned, not-too-sweet cookies that we call “galettes” in French. They make a wonderful snack, but it’s very sad when they run out, which is always very soon after they’re made.

Thursday seemed like a good day to make Pumpkin Pie. Pumpkin Pie is revered at our place, even though we make it with so little sugar that it barely constitutes a dessert. It has to be made with real pumpkin so that it has some chunks that you can see (and taste!) It’s about the pumpkin, not just the spices. Ours features molasses too, so the resulting pie is dark brown, a far cry from the orangey pies that we see at the grocery store.

But that reminds me of a favourite family story! One Thanksgiving dinner at my Dad and Mom’s, after everyone was suitably stuffed with the traditional turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and assorted vegetables, it was time for what we had really all been waiting for: the pumpkin pie. It was dished out, everyone settled into it with gusto, but there was something wrong. After a couple of bites it dawned on me: Ma, you forgot the sugar! Although she wasn’t actually eating any of the pie, my mother responded vehemently: “I did not!” When I insisted that the pie was indeed sugar-less, she turned to my brother-in-law to get a third opinion: “Chris, what do you think of the pie?” After a moment’s hesitation Chris, ever the peacemaker, answered: “It’s… ah… fluffy!” At every pumpkin pie served since then, we relate the story.

On Friday I made another Autumn Pumpkin Loaf, matching it with a second curried pumpkin soup – this was using another recipe, but it wasn’t as good as the Moosewood recipe above.

Saturday morning was time to tackle two recipes for canning. The first was a new recipe I was trying for Pumpkin Citrus Butter. An easy recipe to be sure, but I found it to be bitter and ended up adding a whopping extra cup of sugar to the mix. I didn’t like the texture either, which wasn’t butter-like — more like halfway between a butter and marmelade. I was disappointed and would have thrown the whole lot out in the end, except that Jean-Pierre really likes it.

The second recipe though, for Butternut Maple Butter, is a real winner – real pumpkin and maple flavours. Although the recipe doesn’t say to, I processed the jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

The rest of the day was spent working outside (it’s never done), and a warming Pumpkin Risotto was just the ticket for Saturday’s supper. I’ve made plenty of risottos, but this one really surprised me. It was simply scrumptious!

Now we were getting pretty close to the end of our stash of cooked pumpkin, so I was looking for recipes using a little less. On Sunday morning, what could be nicer than a batch of warm Pumpkin Spice Muffins? Yumm. This recipe uses lots of little bits of ingredients, especially if you don’t keep “Pumpkin Pie Spice” in the cupboard, but was well worth the effort.

The very last bit of cooked squash on hand was used to make a pasta sauce (photo above right) for Sunday’s supper. I cooked the sauce according to the recipe, but when I make it again I would cook it a little longer so that the flavours are more blended. And that was how we ended the great Banana Squash adventure!