Cinderella Pumpkins & Moapa Squash

I love this time of year! We woke up this morning to the freshness of a morning rain. The air was clean and still. The colors of the earth, the crops and the sky were richer and more vivid than usual. The temperature was brisk, cool not cold. I felt that I was being nourished with each breath.

One of my favorite things about fall, aside from the weather, is winter squash and pumpkins! I love to grow them. I love their variety and diversity. The winter squash that you had this week in your share basket is my absolute favorite! I found this squash three years ago from an older local farmer. The seeds of this squash were brought to our valley from the early pioneers and have been handed down and saved since then. I had never seen this beautiful, unusual squash in any seed catalog before. I named it Moapa Squash for our valley. (Pictured in the very middle of this wagon.) With a little investigation, I have since found out that this is an old heirloom Cushaw winter squash named Tennessee Sweet Potato. It is listed as one of the endangered varieties in Slow Food's Ark of Taste. The outside of the squash perfectly fits the description, but the meat of our squash is a bit different. The flesh has a beautiful light-salmon color to it and is very delicious!!! I am sure that through the years this squash has cross-polinated with other varieties making it our very own unique "Moapa Squash". It is delightfully mild and a very hardy squash for our area. One of the great things about this squash is that the plants are not affected by the wicked squash bugs! I hope you are enjoying it this week. Cook it as you do any other winter squash. It also makes great soups and pies! (I will have seeds available at our Local Seed Exchange event next month.)

Next week in your share baskets you will be receiving a portion of a famous pumpkin. It is nicknamed the "Cinderella Pumpkin" because the Walt Disney animator of Cinderella patterned her coach after this old french pumpkin. It is named Rouge Vif D'Etampes. For those of you who speak French you can tell me what this means. (Sonia, help!) Last year I did not have much luck with it but I thought I would give it a try again. We had much better success with it this year as you can see in the picture below. This is the most gorgeous pumpkin I have ever grown! It is a brilliant red-orange color with deep ribs around it. (I can just see the country field mice hiding under the vines ready to be turned into handsome coachmen.) We did not have enough of these pumpkins available for our pot luck dinner, but we will have plenty to share next week. This squash can also be baked into pie for the holidays.



Enjoy the fall harvest and this wonderful weather!
Laura