Autumn Harvest

What natural beauty bestows the countryside as fall comes to season. Leaves begin to change color in rustic shades of brown, orange and red. The trees boast ripe, juicy apples, ready for picking. Pumpkins and gourds adorn porches, and the autumn sunset glows of harvest colors onto the land.

Oh, for all the fruits and vegetables that abound during the fall! Apples and squash are two of the most plentiful and picturesque members of the produce family that graced grocery store shelves with the approach of cool weather. Both apples and squash are versatile members of the fall food season, meaning they are equally scrumptious served up in the bulk of the main course and as the headliner on the dessert table. Open up your hearts and kitchens to the most plentiful crops of the fall season – apples and squash!!

Johnny Appleseed, an American folk hero who was actually named John Chapman, covered 100000 acres in his lifetime – on foot, planting apple seeds, the fruits of which we’re still enjoying today. He apparently had a dream in which he envisioned a land completely covered in apple blossoms, and was inspired, beginning the very next morning, to spend the rest of his life planting and growing apple trees. Why not start peeling and whip up some of your favorite apple recipes, such as apple crisp, apple pie, apple upside-down cake, apple bread, or apple scones. With over 7500 varieties worldwide and several times that in recipes to use them, it shouldn’t be hard to find an apple-pleasing dessert!

Although there are no famous American folktales cataloguing the inspiration and glory of squash – seed planting, squash does indeed have a long and well-founded history in the young Americas. The word squash itself comes directly from the Native American word “askutasquash” which means, “eaten raw or uncooked”. The Iroquois tribe considered squash along with corn and beans to be the “sustenance of life”. Squash are nutritious (jam-packed with vitamins A and C) as well as delicious and abundant. How much more convincing do you need? Why not try some baked squash, squash soup, pumpkin pie, or any number of pumpkin dessert recipes you already have on hand.

With the pressing garden work of spring and summer behind, you now have time to enjoy your harvest. Warm fall colors will fill your kitchen as squash, tomatoes, pumpkins, eggplant and corn are harvested. The cool weather’s creeping up on us so, it’s time to heat the kitchen up with hearty soups and stews, and fill the house with the wonderful aroma of baking cookies and breads. Nothing quite compares to the satisfying wholesomeness of a hearty, home-made meal.

Get out your recipe box and start digging for those treasured delights of fall, today!

Have a blessed day!
Lori