The Squash is In!

We popped out into the Corvallis countryside to photograph Oregon plant breeder Carol Deppe and friends as they harvested the last of the season’s squash. These butternuts were laid on tarps in the shade alongside the already-harvested big “Sweet Meat – Oregon Homestead” and smaller “Candystripe Dessert Delicatas.: (The photo shows Carol surrounded by her harvest. Top right is Robin capturing footage as squash are trucked from field to tarp).

We’ll be recording a conversation with Carol based on her book The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times…Including the Five Crops You Need to Survive and Thrive—Potatoes, Corn, Beans, Squash and Eggs.

I like the personable and comprehensive approach in her book. Gardeners benefit from Carol’s trial-and-error learning on how best to plant, water, select varieties, deal with changeable weather, save and hoard seed, cure squash, easily thresh and winnow the beans, and store everything for the long haul. She’s worked out the least-effort and most-effective methods.

For us kitchen hands, she shares how best to cook these carbohydrate-rich and high-protein foods chosen especially to nourish you through the winter months. You even get her well-tested recipes. I baked squash her way and it was indeed really flavorful. I hope to make her Universal Skillet Corn Bread, made without wheat flour and only with flint corn, which I’ve never had. For the show, I think you’ll wish videos were tasteable!