Botanically it is a winter squash (Cucurbita pepo).  But in the kitchen I think it tastes more like a summer squash. And nutritionally they are more like summer squash, being more watery and less starchy than say a butternut or acorn squash. But then they also have a hard rind and keep much like a winter squash. Confused yet? It’s no wonder they get little respect – they have an identity crisis!

Spaghetti squash gets its name because of its stringy flesh, which can be separated after cooking into long strands that resemble spaghetti pasta. Many people like to use it as a pasta substitute, since it is much lower in calories. One cup of plain cooked spaghetti squash has around 40 calories, with 2 grams of fiber, 1g of protein, and negligible fat. Compare that with the 200 calories found in one cup of cooked spaghetti pasta and you can see why the squash is a dieter’s delight.

Most of the varieties of spaghetti squash, and the ones I usually see in the grocery, are quite large and often weigh in at 3-4 pounds. But a few years ago I tried a variety called Small Wonder that promised smaller, 1-1/2 to 2 pound squashes, and I’ve been growing it ever since. The smaller size suits our household much better than the larger ones. The name is misleading however. While the squashes themselves might be smaller than the standard type, there are LOTS OF THEM! And in my garden, the vines meander all over the place.

I planted 2 seedlings in one “hill” in early May, and about 2 months later I had the first ripe squash. Since I started the seeds indoors, I got about a 3 week jump on the usual 75-80 day maturity of this variety. And this year I planted them on the edge of the garden, where they could vine up the deer fencing if they liked. At least that was my plan. The squash had a plan of their own however!

I’ve been finding the squash all over the place. The one below is over by the caged tomatoes, 15 feet away from the start of the vine.

This pair was hanging out two rows over, with the summer squash. I told you they had an identity crisis!

This one escaped the boundaries of the garden and is growing in the no-mans-land between the plastic deer fencing and the metal fencing that keeps out rabbits and other gnawing pests.

This green one escaped also.

And the vines aren’t through producing yet. Here’s a female blossom that will open in a day or two.

Ack! Here’s another potential spaghetti squash. They’re taking over! At least this vine got the memo about climbing on the fencing.

The 15 squash in the photo below weighed around 24 pounds, with an average weight of 1.6 pounds. The smallest weighed just over 1 pound and the largest was 2.1 pounds. There are at least 6 more out in the garden that aren’t quite ready to pick yet. They could add another 10 pounds or so to the total yield.

That’s a pretty good deal from a packet of seeds that cost $2.45 in 2008 and has given us three years of wonderful spaghetti squash!

There are a lot of good recipes around for these squash, but we usually do a fairly simple treatment when serving them. One way we like to cook them is to cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, then add a little water and bake cut side down, covered, in a baking dish for about 50-60 minutes at 375F. When tender I add a little butter, honey and minced ginger, and return it to the oven for 5-10 minutes. Then I fluff up the strands with a fork, scoop out the flesh and serve.

baked spaghetti squash

It’s also nice cooked plain then tossed with a little pesto sauce. The squash can also be microwaved, baked, or boiled. However you cook them, spaghetti squash are an interesting and tasty addition to your kitchen repertoire. Give them a try sometime, or better yet, try growing them in your garden.

pickled garlic

I am also going to try freezing some whole cloves of garlic and see how that works. I know the texture will change, but hopefully the flavor will still be there after thawing out.

Back on the pickling front, I also had some pepperoncini peppers ready to pickle. We don’t eat a lot of these peppers, so I only planted one plant. But even with one plant, there are usually a lot of peppers, so I like to pickle some of them. I didn’t process these in a boiling water bath, since they will stay in the refrigerator and be eaten within a month or so. For them I used a recipe for pickled peppers from my Ball Blue Book. For whole peppers like this I always cut a slit in them to allow the pickling solution to get inside the pepper, and to keep them from floating. This variety of pepperoncini is larger than what you usually see pickled at the grocery store.

And when cucumbers are available fresh from the garden like they are now we always have a batch of refrigerator pickles to munch on. I made these with rice wine vinegar, sugar, canola oil and a little salt.

After the pickles are made comes the hardest part for me – waiting until they are ready to taste! I won’t open the garlic for several months, but the pepperoncinis will be ready in about a week. And by the time you read this, those cucumber pickles may already be history!

The first time I grew the diminutive Fairy Tale eggplant, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. The plant made lots of beautiful little purple and white streaked eggplants, but they were so small! Their maximum size is about 1-3/4″ wide by 4″ long, but many are even smaller than that.

Fairy Tale eggplants in 5" diameter bowl

The eggplants were good stir fried, but it took a lot of them to make a meal. I dismissed this 2005 All American Selection as just another novelty vegetable: decorative and cute to look at, but not very useful in the kitchen. Boy was I ever wrong!

Fairy Tale plant grown in container

Fast forward a couple of years. My wife and I discovered the joys of grilling eggplant and peppers (we were blessed with lots of both of them). I even made a grilled eggplant parmesan, but mostly I just brushed the sliced eggplant with a little olive oil and grilled it for about 10 minutes or so. Eggplant is low in calories and high in fiber (20 calories and 3 grams of fiber per cup) and when grilled it makes for a mild-tasting side dish that complements a lot of our summertime meals.

Fairy Tale on the grill

But back to the Fairy Tale variety. Last year Master Gardeners grew it at our display gardens, and it produced a bumper crop. We were encouraged to take some home and try it. So I did, and this time I knew how to fix it: grilled!

Anxious to serve it as an appetizer with a light lunch, I searched the Web for a sauce to go with it. I found a recipe from Nigel Slater’s book “The Kitchen Diaries, A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater” that sounded interesting. The recipe that follows has become a favorite here. This year I planted Fairy Tale in several large containers and it has been producing abundantly.

Grilled Eggplant with Tahini Yogurt Sauce

This recipe makes a great light appetizer or side dish whenever fresh eggplant is available. Avoid older eggplants with dull skin since they tend to be bitter tasting. This recipe is great for miniature eggplants like Fairy Tale, Hansel or Gretel – just slice them in half lengthwise. Larger oval eggplants can be sliced crosswise.

tomato harvest from late July

For us, the Red Zone is the island counter top in the kitchen. Ours is a busy kitchen, since we eat most of our meals at home and grow most of our own vegetables and fruit. Not all the tomatoes are red of course. We also have the orange colors of the Sungolds, Jennys and Flammes and the light yellows of the Golden Raves. This year we also have the darker reds of the Black Cherry tomatoes. Most of the small fruited ones that don’t get eaten as-is get dried in the dehydrator. We’ve already got 10 packages of them dried so far, and the dehydrator is busy again today.

tomatoes fresh and dried

The dried tomatoes are so tasty and so versatile. All that tomato flavor gets concentrated into a small bite-size bit of goodness. After soaking in water for a few minutes, they are great on and in salads, frittatas and omelettes, and with green beans, spinach, squash, wraps and pizzas. Of course we also just snack on quite a few of them while still dried.

Some of the slicers wound up on BLT sandwiches yesterday for lunch. And some went into salsa I made earlier in the week. Others will get cut into halves and quarters and frozen for later use in soups and stews. And when the paste tomatoes start rolling in many of them will get simmered down for sauces and then frozen.

So at this time of year don’t park anything but a tomato in the Red Zone. Because if you’re not careful, it will wind up dried, frozen, cooked or eaten!

view from back yard

Dutch elm disease (DED)  is a fungus disease spread by the elm bark beetle. Infected trees wilt and turn brown in summer, usually starting in the upper part of the tree. It spread fast in this one, almost before our very eyes. The tree leafed out normally this spring, but now in mid summer over 50% of the limbs are brown and withered. Part of the bark on the trunk is peeling off, and the insect damage is visible.

One arborist told us it is possible the beetles have been working on the tree for some time. Last year it had a lot of broken limbs from the ice storm that winter. We had them trimmed back by a tree trimming service, but that damage and the trimming stressed the tree and opened it up to insects.

view from across the road

We also have another big elm tree that appears to be symptom free at the present time. We are going to take a proactive approach with it. Since the disease is spread by insects, we are going to treat it with Imidacloprid, applied as a soil drench. That will kill any beetles that try to feed on the tree. We also have the option of treating it with a fungicide. I am reluctant to use any chemicals in the garden, and Imidacloprid is not without controversy, since it has been linked to a decline in bee populations. However that was when the chemical was used on crops pollinated and visited by bees. Elm trees are wind-pollinated and unlikely to be visited by bees. It’s a tough call.

mulberry tree on left, healthy elm on right

As a result of this unfolding drama, for the last few days I have been in a wistful, philosophical mood. At first I am saddened by the demise of the giant tree that has stood in this place for perhaps a century. How many children have played under it? How many people besides my wife and I have enjoyed its shape and form? How many have been cooled by its shade? Am I the only one to have placed my hand on its massive trunk (130″ around) and told it how much it was admired and appreciated? Is it even appropriate to grieve the loss of a tree?

trunk of diseased elm tree

But then I also realize that it is the nature of trees and people to grow, live, and then die. All of the trees at Happy Acres will die someday. We just didn’t expect this one would depart so soon.

As if to illustrate the circle of life, when we were walking around with one of the arborists we spied this young elm seedling hiding out beneath a weigela shrub. Even as one tree is dying, another has taken root. Life goes on.

young elm seedling

I found myself drawn today to one of the better known parts of the Book of Ecclesiastes, the part that Pete Seeger turned into the song “Turn! Turn! Turn!”. The words there seem to sum up my feelings about the elm tree and its passing, as well as my own time on this earth.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

Much of Ecclesiastes is dark and depressing to me, but I find these words comforting. We spent two hours this morning weeding and harvesting at the church garden. It was tiring work, but also soothing to my psyche. It’s all part of the rhythm of the seasons of life.

I bid you all peace, and if you love your trees, please give them a big hug while you still can.

This whole wheat bread has become our new favorite for sandwiches. The whole wheat flour and ground flaxseed combine to give it lots of fiber and nutrients plus a wonderful taste.

I bake it in a bread pan if we’re going to slice it up for sandwiches, but it also works well as a free-standing formed loaf.

We freeze leftover slices of this bread for later use. They are great toasted for sandwiches or made into croutons.