This summer I spent two Saturdays a month at the Havre de Grace Farmer’s Market with the Harford County Master Gardeners. We had a booth at the market where we promoted gardening and best practices for taking care of your yard. There were several local farms at the market each week and it was amazing to see the fresh products they brought to share with the community.

Eating local is becoming a bigger movement each year and access to fresh food is becoming a little easier as well. Farmers have been offering CSA programs for many years (Community Supported Agriculture). Flying Plow Farm, one of our local farms defines CSA as follows: “CSAs are designed to provide a close connection between a farm, the farmers, and a community of members. The farm and farmers feed the members by providing a weekly share of produce. The members financially support the farm and become an integral part of small scale, local agriculture.” This relationship provides capital to the farmers to invest in their growing seasons and in turn the consumer gets a share of the product. This idea has grown tremendously over the past several years and farms offer different size shares as well as many add-on products. They often collaborate with other local farms to diversify what they can offer and support one another. There are warm weather CSAs that run for 20+ weeks from spring until late fall and there are also cool weather CSA programs that offer root vegetables and greens. This is a win-win for the local farmer and consumer and a great way to support your community.

Some Local CSA Programs:

Flying Plow Farm – Cecil County Maryland https://flyingplow.com/csa

Third Way Farm – Havre de Grace Maryland https://www.thirdwayfarm.com/csa.html

Try New Things!

Anyone who knows me, knows I am not much into cooking or any kind of food prep.  I honestly do not enjoy anything related to making or preparing food.  Each week at the farmer’s market, my fellow Master Gardeners would try to encourage me to get something new and try  to prepare it.  They would give me ideas and tips and most weeks, that was not enough to inspire me.  As we got closer to Thanksgiving, I decided to get way out of my comfort zone and to get some vegetables to prepare for a meal.  I gathered an array of different colorful things including cauliflower, winter squashes, carrots, beets, potatoes.  The one vegetable that caught my eye was a Northern Georgia Candy Roaster Squash!  This thing was huge and a few of my friends and I debated if I should get it.  We were all intrigued and wanted the seeds from it to try to grow our own so I bit the bullet and got it.  Since this is a winter squash, it can be stored in a cool dry place for months.   This squash made an appearance at our table a few weeks later and became a novelty due to its interesting shape and size.

The big day came and it was time to prepare the squash!   I split it open lengthwise and scooped out the seeds to save and dry.   That was the main reason to get this squash!   I then cut it in quarters, laid it on a baking tray and topped the squash with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  I baked it for about 35 minutes until tender and it was not hard at all!   The squash was quite good and tasted kind of like a sweet potato so it was a success!   Looking at it sitting on my shelf for over a month gave me a bit of anxiety since I had never cooked a winter squash before. 

I have since tried the Red Kori squash and still have a butternut, acorn, and delicata squashes waiting to be roasted!  Winter squash are a great option for the late fall and winter months as they are easy to prepare and uncooked squash can be stored for months.  If you don’t have a local farmer’s market, you can get many of these at quality grocery stores so give one a try!