Vegetable: Winter Squashes

Recipes:
Stuffed Sweet Dumpling Squash
Butternut Squash Soup
Stuffed Butternut Squash
Apple-filled acorn squash
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin and rosemary risotto with Pecorino
Sprouts with Pumpkin and Chestnuts
Baked Pattison Squash
Acorn Squash stew
Roasted acorn squash with chilli vinaigrette

Winter squashes are the fancy dressers of the autumnal dinner table. From the weird and wonderful to the smooth and lovely, they add welcome colour and hearty texture. While each type varies in shape, color, size and flavour, they all share some common characteristics. Their hard skins mean they have long shelf lives and they all have seed-containing hollow inner cavities. The seeds can be eaten – try roasting them in a little oil and salt – they’re a good source of zinc. Generally speaking, all winter gourds are packed with vitamins A and C and are a good source of potassium. They also contain plenty of dietary fibre and are low in calories.

This is by no means an exhaustive list – there are so many varieties – but here’s a shortlist of some of the ones we usually have in the shop at various points during the autumn months:

• Marina de Chioggia squash has what you might describe as a 'lived in' look. It looks almost prehistoric with its lumpy bumpyness. Cultivated in Italy, it's a great one to store over the winter months, and it's flavour actually improves with age. Beautiful orangey flesh tastes almost of caramel.
Good for pies, roasted and baked. If you cook it well, you can eat the skin.
• Delicata Squash is an pale green and yellow oblong -shaped squash with a soft golden middle. Our field grown ones are quite small, but they can grow up to 25cm or so. Best baked or steamed, served simply with butter and herbs.
  Place the squash with the skin side down in a dish with a couple of cms of water in it. Cover and bake for up to 3/4 hour in a medium-hot oven.
• Sweet Dumpling Squash is sweet as honey and round like a dumpling. Smaller in size, pretty to look at and delicious to eat, they look great served whole. Bake whole or cut off the tops (scoop out seeds) and add some spices and butter and bake them. You can eat the skin as well, so no need to peel.
• Butternut squash, possibly the most popular and versatile, are also a good source of beta-carotene. They’re so popular because they’re so easy to use. The rind is thin enough to peel off with a vegetable peeler, and can be left on and eaten. We’re getting some butternut squashes in from Somerset from next week.
• Acorn squash look like hearty harvest produce, with their dark green and orange speckled skin. The flesh, though still sweet, also has a nutty and peppery edge. Acorn squash rind does need to be peeled off, and it’s quite tough, so has the added bonus of warming you up as you work away! We have loads of acorn squashes growing in the Barley Wood field right now.
• Turk’s Turbans are so ugly, they’re beautiful! The orange-yellow flesh has a flavour reminiscent of hazelnuts, quite mild and smooth. You can hollow them out and use as a spectacular soup tureen.
• Pumpkins vary hugely in size, texture and flavour. The small ones are usually the most fleshy and sweet. Some pumpkins sold in larger supermarkets are great for hollowing out and putting lanterns in, but don’t have much flesh and are incredibly bland. Our Barley Wood field ones are not like this and are currently maturing nicely.
• The slightly more savoury Hubbard squash is usually large and comes in an array of colours: dark green, grey-blue or orange-red. It’s size usually means that the skin is too tough to eat, but the flesh is satisfyingly hearty.
• Muscat de Provence squash is a French Heirloom rare winter variety. It’s a large variety with a smooth orange finish. It has deep ridges and a very sweet flesh. It’s know for lasting in storage throughout all the winter.
• Patisson squash, also known as patty pans, are a small, round squash with a pretty scalloped edge. The name comes from the French word 'pâtisson', which refers to a cake made in a scalloped mould. They're also known as 'custard marrow' or 'custard squash'. Patissons can be prepared in much the same way as courgettes. You can eat the skin once they've been washed. As well as being baked, they're delicious fried, or eaten raw in salads.