Buttercup Squash Anyone?

If you are like me, you had never heard of Buttercup Squash before. You've probably heard of Butternut....but this is different. I got these seeds from my sister, who had gotten them from a family friend during Feast. I honestly can't remember which little Ziploc bag they came from--the one labeled Butternut Squash or the one labeled Acorn squash. Whichever one it was, it was apparently mislabeled.

So when the squash started growing and it didn't look like it was supposed to, it was kind of fun to try and figure out what I had. After much investigating and countless Google searches, I came upon Buttercup Squash. 

Now that fall is here and the frost will be coming soon, I decided it was time to harvest the squash and try it out. Again, I wasn't sure what I should be doing so I did another Google search and found a simple way to cook & serve it.  Here's what I did:

 This is the squash--dark green & light green rind, pumpkin-shaped but smaller.

 The Buttercup Squash often has a light silvery-green disk of rind on the blossom end. (I cut it before I thought of showing you this side of it, so I had to hold it back together to get the picture).

 Cut the squash open lengthwise, through the stem. Beautiful orange flesh inside!

 Scoop out the seeds & stringy "guts", just like you do when you're getting ready to carve a pumpkin, being careful to leave plenty of the edible flesh intact.

I cleaned off the seeds and set them out on waxed paper to dry out, since a few of my friends have expressed interest in having some of these seeds. (You know who you are!)

Pour about half a cup of water into a pan or casserole dish that has sides and put the squash halves in, cut side down. Cook for about 30 - 45 minutes (or until flesh is tender) at 375 degrees.

 Notice how the rind darkens and becomes shiny after cooking...

 The flesh is tender and moist after being cooked with the water, basically steaming it.

 Scoop out the flesh, being careful not to go too deep & get the green rind.

 For some great flavor, add some butter, brown sugar and cinnamon to taste.

(Sorry about the sideways picture. Not sure why it won't post right side up when I saved it that way).

 Stir it all in and enjoy! I get a little exuberant with my stirring so my bowl is pretty messy. The taste is definitely like a squash, but mild and a little nutty. Similar to a sweet potato, but a little less sweet.

This is just one way to serve it, but it is delicious. Does anyone out there have any other suggestions for ways to cook and serve a Buttercup Squash?

The Witch is Back...

Okay, I don't really think I'm a witch or anything....I was just referring to the new decor or my blog in honor of Halloween....and the title just kind of went from there.

So you've probably noticed it's been awhile since I've been here. As you can see from my last post, we had a devastating blow to our family back in May and honestly it's been a long time since things have felt normal. Heck, I don't know if they'll ever feel normal again... But as with all things, we go on. 

So here I am again, putting down my thoughts and regaling you with the exciting adventures that are my life.

(Ha!)

Since the last time I was here, I started a new job. I am now working at a local community college. I am totally thrilled about this change, although I will miss the gang at Curtis Clean Sweep. This job is about three miles from my house so I'm saving a LOT in gas money! Plus there are a lot of great benefits, including discounted fees if I want to take any classes. I work with a great bunch of people and I already feel so welcome there and a part of the team.

We also added two more goats to our little goat family. With help from friends, we have named them Gingersnap and Buttercup. They're a hoot! Our mini herd is doing well and I hope to maybe breed some of the females next spring so we can get some milk and maybe I can learn to make some cheese, lotion, or other goat milk products.

Gingersnap & Buttercup on checking out their new surroundings, with Cupcake watching on.

Our garden was a success this year, although smaller than I've had in the past. It was sort of an experiment in how much I could grow in that space. It went well overall, but I think next year I will change up what I grow a little so I get more of the veggies I really like instead of an overabundance of squash. I'm also excited about the idea of heirloom vegetables that I can save seeds from each year when I find something I really like.

How was your summer?

The Past Four Months...

Where to begin?  So much has happened since my last regular post back in February.  I have a LOT to catch up on, so fair warning--this will be long.  

Garden

If you've followed my blog or know me very well, you know that every year I try to grow a garden.  This year instead of listening to my husband (sorry honey, I still love you) I decided to reign in the size of my garden.  Years ago, my sister introduced me to the concept of "Square Foot Gardening".  Over the years I've incorporated small hints of the SFG method into my gardens but have never done a full blown actual square foot garden.  Since I also wanted to move the garden closer to the house this year to make gardening more enjoyable, I figured it would be a great time to go all out.  I got some used wood from someone who was dismantling an old deck.  I had my son bring in some gravel from my old house.  I used the existing laundry line structures to make my vertical portions of the garden.  I got some seeds passed along from my sister.  

The result?

  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  I would have liked to have gotten an earlier start with more of the seeds my sister sent me, but due to unforseen circumstances my planting schedule started much later than anticipated and I ended up having to get several already started plants.  But the point is that I got it planted & now I can enjoy working in it each day.  Bring on the veggies!

New Additions 

We have goats!

 We got them primarily to try to keep our pasture down.  As you can see from the second picture it's gotten a bit out of control.  We were hoping the goats could do some serious damage to the grass & weeds--however we're quickly learning that having just two of them probably isn't going to cut it.  Are we going to make the leap to goat herd farmers?  You'll have to stay tuned to find out...

5K

Back in February I made the decision that I wanted to run my first 5K.  I saw an advertisement for a 5K race called "See Jane Run" and I figured that was the perfect one to try.  I started off okay with my training, but again, due to unforseen circumstances, I lost about a month of training in May and at one point wasn't sure I still had the will to do the race.

But with less than a week to go before the race, my friends encouraged me to go ahead and try.  I had to remind myself that I didn't have to run the whole race--I could walk if I needed to.  And I needed to.  I didn't turn in a great time and I found out halfway through the race that an old knee injury may keep me from being a true hard core runner.  But I was happy that I finished the race and I had a great time with my friend Donna & her daughter Shelby.

 (Photo taken with my phone...sorry about the bad quality)

I had intended to write about one more thing that happened recently but thinking about it now, it doesn't seem right to include it in this post.  It really needs a post of its own and I need to be in the right state of mind to write about it.  It may show up later tonight or sometime during the next few days.  But it will be written, if anything, to help with the healing process.  You'll be hearing from me soon.

  

This Year's Garden....

This year has been a strange one in regards to our garden.  The weather didn't allow us to get things done until a lot later than usual.  Plus I took a totally different approach this year (especially since I knew that I was the one who would be doing 99% of the work this time around) and made sort of a modified raised bed/square foot garden plan.  Honestly.....I pretty much made it up as I went along.  After seeing how my neighbors did their garden with a similar raised/sunken path design, I adopted that for mine.  Then when I planted I still tried to follow the basic guidelines of square foot gardening.  I'm not doing as many of the vining plant vertically like they do in square foot gardening, but I'm still using the spacing as a guideline.  I was thrilled to get ahold of some straw bales for free (thank you Craigslist!) to help keep weeds & mud down to a minimum.  Now that some of the seeds I planted are actually sprouting, I plan to mulch a little heavier with the straw.  So here's where I'm at right now:

The closest rows (the skinnier ones) are my corn rows.  (Heh...corn rows....)  I just got those planted (yes, I know I'm frightfully late, but at least I got them in) and I plan to companion plant the beans next to the corn once it gets about a foot or two high.  My poor little cherry tomatoes are in the first wide row after that--they suffered quite a bit when we had bad winds the day I planted them.  Also in that row is bell peppers and a few watermelon plants at the end of the row that I plan to let meander through the rest of the plants on that row.  Oh and on the opposite end of that, where the wire fencing is, I planted peas. 

Look!  They're just starting to sprout!

Beyond that is the row with egg plant, zucchini and cucumbers, which are also just emerging from the soil.  See, there they are!

Then in the last regular row I have my Big Boy tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and a few honey dew melons at the end (which, like the watermelon, will be allowed to wander through the other plants.)  The raised beds in the railroad ties so far have onions, carrots & lettuce.  I had also intended to plant garlic and herbs but have been a little preoccupied with the rest of the garden.  Hopefully I'll get around to it soon.  

Oh, see what I'm doing there?  That's new this year too.  I'm trying not to stress too hard about being all formal about the garden.  If I get it planted, good for me!  If I don't, I'll be sure to plan better next year.  This year is all about experimenting and learning what works best for me.  And trying not to be too worried about everything perfectly in it's place.  

I still haven't given up the tape measure though....gotta use that when I space my seeds.  Sorry, can't let go of that one...

Baby steps.... 

We Have Protection...

Well we didn't get anything planted today, but mainly because we spent most of the day getting things "ready".  As I mentioned in the previous post, we got our raised beds in earlier today.  After getting a couple of the rows tilled and mapping out where we wanted to put some things, we realized that all of our work is going to be for nothing if anything gets into the garden.  (Like our dogs.)  So we broke out the post pounder and the t-posts and let my step son get some exercise.  (He's going to have noodle arms when he wakes up tomorrow morning!)  He got 15 posts pounded into the ground to make up our fence.  I arranged a couple of the posts closer together to be our "entrance" and then we got the fencing.  (This is when I thank my work for "donating" the fencing and posts to me...all I have to do is bring in some veggies this summer!  I love bartering!)  It's not necessarily pretty, but it's functional.  It will keep out the dogs and maybe even the neighbor's horse if he wanders into our front pasture and doesn't go running full force towards the fence.  It works for what we want it to do...

Let The Gardening Begin!

Okay, we are WAY behind this year on getting our garden done.  However, this may not be a bad thing considering just last weekend we had two nights that dipped down to freezing and our neighbor has had to replant their garden twice this spring.  But because I didn't anticipate us planting this late, my seedlings are practically full grown plants!  I'm almost expecting to come out some morning and find a little green tomato hanging off the plant.  Ha ha!

Unfortunately, like I mentioned about last weekend, the weather has not been cooperative lately.  Add to that the fact that we had to prepare for graduation with my oldest son, my husband just started a new job and my son just started a new job... It just hasn't been in the cards for us.

So I was really excited when today the weather looked good, my husband was here, our youngest son was here and no one felt sick, injured, etc.  We got out there a little late in the day but within the first hour we already had finished our first garden project--the raised beds.

 It's only one small part of the garden, but I feel so much better knowing it's done.  I couldn't lift those heavy railroad ties all by myself so having the guys get it done for me was a relief.  This is where I'm going to grow my "root vegetables" and other veggies that do well in raised beds--carrots, onions, garlic and lettuce.  Tomorrow while my husband is out shooting with some friends, I'll get all of these settled into their beds.

Next stop--tomatoes, peppers and potato towers!!

Evolution of a Garden...

Tonight when I went out for my nightly perusal of our garden, I was amazed at how much it has changed in just over a month or so. The plants are seeming to explode in size overnight. Some of our rows didn't grow as we had planned--either the birds got the seeds or, well...all I can think of is that the birds got the seeds. But I'm still happy at how the rows have turned out for the most part.

I was going to just post a current picture but I think it's much more of a visual effect if I start at the beginning...

This is the garden on 5/18/09. We had just gotten done with some major planting of seeds. Pretty much all dirt with nothing even thinking of sprouting yet.

This is our garden on 6/7/09, just one month ago today. The corn was coming along, the cucumbers & beans were sprouting, but there was still a LOT of dirt.

Forward to 6/26/09 and things are definitely looking different! My son Collin built a "fence" for me for the cucumbers and everything is really taking off.

And here we are today! First photo is standing in the middle looking left. Second photo is looking right. Corn is above knee-high, most of the tomato plants are in cages, the broccoli is FINALLY starting to form in the middle, zucchini is going nuts and watermelon is sprawling out. (There's more than that growing but you get the idea...)

Every day I'm excited to go out into the garden and see what else I find growing. I'm finding vegetables peeking out from under leaves and vines everywhere. Sometimes I find something that looks like it's been growing for awhile and I like to think it hid there for awhile just to surprise me when I least expect it.
I'll keep you posted...

Tis the Season.....

...for planting & growing!

This morning I started off "prettying up the place". Randy had volunteered for security detail at a speaking engagement a couple of weeks ago and at the end of the night they gave him a bunch of the plants they had used to decorate. Yesterday I remembered that Randy had brought a large planting pot with him when he moved out here so we got some potting soil and first thing today I got it planted with some of those plants we had. When I was done we still had quite a few left so I decided to put them out in the front flower beds to add some color. I believe that in this zone these plants are considered annuals so they won't come back next year--but for now they add a nice splash to the beds and our front porch. The colors are all red, white and blue so when Fourth of July comes around we'll look very patriotic, lol.


Our garden is really finally taking off, after a few false starts. But I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. You can't really tell in this picture but almost everything is up & growing. The five rows on the right are all corn which is growing the fastest. Throughout the rest of the garden is garlic, spinach, peppers, broccoli, green beans, cucumbers, watermelon, zucchini, carrots, leaf lettuce and iceberg lettuce. (I may be forgetting something...) We ended up not having enough room for the pumpkins so we had to spend today tilling 4 more rows for them. (You can see Randy starting that to the left of the garden in the picture.) We managed to get them all planted before the rain started this afternoon. The rain we've gotten lately has been a great help because it's cut back on the watering we've had to do this week. I'll keep you all updated on the garden progress as time goes by...

And It Just Keeps Coming...

Have you ever been woken up at 4:45 a.m. by someone pounding on your door & ringing the doorbell? It's not fun. That happened to us this morning and when my husband went to check on who it was, there was a cop standing at our door. That's enough to give anyone a heart attack in the wee hours of the morning.
It turns out someone's horses got loose (two of them) and the police assumed that since we had a pasture with an open gate, they belonged to us. The truth is no, we don't own any horses (which we told the policeman) and we only keep the gate open because my husband parks his truck behind the house. But even after we told the officer that they weren't ours, they just said, "Well we put them in your pasture and secured your gate. You'll probably be getting a call from someone later." Then he promptly left. Um......they're NOT our horses!
So later this morning, once the sun had come up, we made the unfortunate discovery that these horses had trampled through our garden. Yeah, the one I'm having trouble with anyway. Those few precious tomato & pepper plants that survived have now been trampled under horse hooves. Really? Is there anything else fate would like to do to our garden?

On an up-note, we got a call from our neighbor last night--the neighbor who we've been getting the pig feed from and who arranged for us to get these pigs. He said that if we sell the pigs now, we'd lose our shirts so he made a deal with us. He is going to supply us with our pig feed at no cost for now and then when the pigs are sold and we receive our checks, we can pay him back for the feed then. I'm so glad we have nice neighbors! I think people are really pulling through & rallying with their neighbors during these tough times. Like bringing over tamales for no reason like our next door neighbors did the other night or what Hobie is doing by working with us so we can keep the pigs. This is why I love where we live.

How Does Your Garden Grow?....(not so well actually.)

Okay I don't know how my sister does it... She has had a really awesome garden for years now and from what I understand they're expanding and planting even more gardens. They plan to sell a lot of what they grow at their local farmer's market in West Virginia. I've done small gardens before but have usually bought plants & planted them directly to the garden. This year I wanted to save money so we bought all seeds and I started some of them indoors to give them a head start. This past weekend we transplanted all of the plants grown indoors. But soon after we planted them we had a late frost warning two nights in a row. I ran to the store and got some plastic cups to put over them for protection and just today took them off to see how they did. Yeah...not so great. I lost all but 2 or 3 of my pepper plants and only about 1/5 of our tomato plants made it. Oh and the onions I planted also didn't make it either. It's SO disappointing because now we have to start over from scratch. It's already the middle of May and my huge garden hardly has anything in it. I honestly feel like giving up. We wanted so badly to have a big garden so we could give back to friends & the community (through a local foodbank) and now it looks like we may not even have enough just for us!

Then to make matters worse, today my husband made the decision to start looking for someone to buy our pigs. These were the pigs we bought at the urging of a friend so the boys could do a 4H project and sell them for profit at the end. The problem is you don't see any of the profit until the end of summer. It's only May and we've already spent about $250 per pig (including purchase cost, food, etc.) You see these are "show pigs" so we've been told we can't just feed them slop. If we could, we'd be doing okay. But these pigs have to be fed grain and believe me they eat a LOT. The problem is that with me only working 4 days a week now and Randy still not being able to find a job, how are we supposed to feed pigs with expensive feed?

I don't know, it's just incredibly frustrating to have everything falling apart like this. No garden, no pigs, no jobs.... I've been trying so hard lately to think of something I can do for extra money right now. I mentioned before about the talents of my mom & sister. I watch shows where people have started their own businesses with just their God given talents. I just feel like I don't have anything I can do that is worth making extra money. It's kind of depressing actually. This is supposed to be the start of a "better life" for me and instead with all of the economy problems and things that keep happening, it just seems like things are getting worse instead. I'm sure my ex will call it karma or something. If anyone has any good suggestions, I'd love to hear them...