#squashes

My children are getting big. They long for the soil, but the temperature hasn’t been cooperating lately. We transplanted the cucumbers and tomatoes, but it was getting too hot to continue working in the garden when it was my squashes’ turn.

I didn't plan on making these pouches as I was going to make some with my sunflower print out of the offcuts of these napkins I made, but I found some of this old squash print fabric which I'd squirreled away and forgotten about and decided to work with that instead. I had enough to make two coin purses in each colour, plus a large and medium sized pouch.

I've already put all of these on Etsy for now with my other pieces here. I do have a couple of markets coming up in October so I'm hoping they'll sell well there.

Huge monster squash to feed a village. I bought only 1/4 squash and I don't know what I will do with so much squash, but listen: this is the real deal. Pure pumpkiny goodness. Flavor is superb. Carmelizes beautifully in oven, and the juice it leaks onto the pan is amazing: use a deep dish to catch it, not a flat baking sheet, and don't let the juices scorch. Save and use them

Yes, it does switch from a cantaloupe-like raw texture to something stringy when roasted BUT the strings mash/puree easily into something silky.

I might try cooking down the puree to condense the flavor a bit for pie making: it's very juicy and wet and might need to be a little thicker to make a pie.

But the flavor is awesome and sweet.

I have my first pie in the oven and enough extra puree in the fridge to make several more . Very excited about this: after a couple weeks of squash tasting, this is the first one that cried out to be pie.

UPDATE: huge success. Delicious pie, very silky and creamy, wonderful pumpkin flavor. Definitely need to cook down the puree a bit more, but I have so much pumpkin, I can try several more times .

So very, very orange. Intense color.

Also rinsing out the blender yielded a very drinkable pumpkin juice. Wish I had a bit more of the carmelized pan drippings to go in it, but lesson learned for next time.

Who's ready for some fall crafting? 🧡