Down the road from us on Highway 124 between Duntroon and Collingwood (north of Nottawa) is a squash and pumpkin farm! Isn't that delightful? I mean, of all the things to live close by to than 20 varieties of winter squash, 15 sizes of pumpkins from baby boos to oversized mottled monsters, some white skinned cutie pies and some with warts that are not so cute, a wagon full of gourds, stalks of dried corn, squares of decorative straw, and Indian dried decorative corn. 'Tis the season for the death of gaudy colours - so long magenta - to make room for the subtle splash of autumn, which is so pretty and so full of childhood memories (crunchy leaves, cold cheeks, spicy hot cider, the play of light through the window, the serious romance of the sky at dusk, the rush of ripeness before the desolation of winter. It's a fleeting and torried affair I have with fall.
For almost everyone I know the change of season is a sort of bookmark for change, an excuse to rid a particular bad chapter of life out the window with the humidity, a desire to embark on new things or strengthen some thing that has already begun. I don't know. Maybe it's because we're Canadian. We live for the seasons. Each month brings some new hallmark of the earth altering around us and we bear witness. From milkpods to silky thistles, and the pungent odor of an early thaw and the sweetness that burns with the sun on a bed of pine needles, the colour explosion in the hills, the rush of spring water down the mountain and the particularly serene beauty of a colourless winter. So colourless it becomes colourful, a palette of lilacs and blues until the sun sets or rises and the sky turns to fire. I went to California once and lived in a tent for a week on my friend's front porch in the mountains. I never saw rain. I never saw clouds. I didn't feel a degree drop or rise in temperature. The sun shone. And it shone. And the sky was blue. And blue, again. The same blue. The same sky. It became so eternal and unbearable in just five days that I starting dreaming, in August, of the moors of England. Dampness and must. Ripe fields and lush meadows. Mist. The magic of ambiguity. California weather made me feel transparent.
I have a few recipes to share with you from this bounty: a pumpkin sweet bread, a spicy squash and sweet potato soup, and the results of our squash bake off! There were so many squashes with such different skins - ribbed and striped and flat and bumpy concealing what I know to be different fleshes - colourful and opaque, dense and bland, firm and strand-like. So we've pulled together the White Swan variety with a few Delicatas and Celebrations and Turbans and Hubbards and we'll bake them and taste them and let you know the results.
PUMPKIN SPICE BREAD, makes 1 loaf
-----I bought a small pie pumpkin to use for the puree. You can use canned if you prefer. I baked the pumpkin, whole, on a cookie sheet at 350 for about 45 minutes. I let it cool; skinned and topped it; and scooped out the flesh.-----
1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup of all purpose and 1/2 cup of whole wheat but feel free to experiment with the flours you prefer)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cup pumpkin purée
1/2 cup sunflower oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup maple syrup 1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon chinese five spice (or nutmeg or cardamom or whatever hint of spice you like!)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup (1 dL) chopped walnuts
1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.
2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, maple syrup, yogurt, and spices together in a separate bowl until blended. Combine, in batches, with the dry ingredients. Stir in the nuts.
3 Pour into an oiled loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until it is a deep golden colour on top and a skewer comes out clean from the loaf's centre. Let cool on a rack.
Our local pumpkin farm has closed. : ( Now after reading your post I have farm envy - surely that is a new condition for pyschologists to ponder?
Posted by: Dana McCauley | October 04, 2008 at 09:43 AM