Stuffed Sweet Dumpling Squash

Sweet Dumplings are the perfect squash for stuffing.  They taste almost identical to their sister squash--the long oblong delicata.  Both are very sweet and cook up quickly.

Here's a great recipe to turn your cute little squash into a hearty main dish.

Stuffed Sweet Dumpling Squash

adapted from inpsiredbites.blogspot.com

3 sweet dumpling (or delicata) squash
salt and pepper
1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 cup toasted pecans
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup red pepper, diced
1/3 cup green pepper, diced
1 small stalk of celery, diced
1/3 cup sweet, white onion, diced2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 cup currants
1 cup chopped baby spinach
1/2 cup brown rice
1 1/4 cup water

Add the rice and water to a small pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40-45 minutes. When it’s done, all the water will be absorbed and the rice fluff with a fork.

While the rice cooks, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Halve the squash lengthwise.  Spoon out the seeds in each squash half. Season the cavity with salt and pepper. Place cut-side down on a baking sheet and cook for 30-40 minutes. When it is done, you will be able to press on the skin, and it will give because the inner flesh will be softened.

While it cooks, heat up the oil in a large pan and saute the vegetables along with the salt and pepper. About half way through the cooking time, add the currants, garlic, and spinach. When the vegetable mixture is cooked till it is soft and slightly browned, transfer the mixture to a medium mixing bowl. Add the rice and the toasted pecans.

Brown the meat in the pan you used to cook the vegetables. Add the browned meat to the vegetable mixture.

Place the mixture into the squash halves. Over-stuffing is just fine!

Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy!

Guy Writes: Are we headed for a food crisis?

I just finished listening to a great podcast by the Planet Money team at NPR.  They've been following a particular toxic asset that they purchased six months ago.  Check out the story for all the details.  The piece left me thinking about the word 'relationship'.  Certainly the lack of direct relationship between borrower and lender played a big role in the financial crisis.  Lenders didn't do due diligence on the borrowers.  Borrowers walked away from their loans after things went upside down, in part because the lenders seemed like faceless and lifeless entities. 

It makes me think about our food system.  Like the financial system, it has lost the connection that comes through relationship.  And like the financial system, this facelessness has led to industries that don't necessarily add to the well being of society.  Think of beef and poultry confinement operations (CAFOs).  These produce a cheap product and create wealth for the concentrated few who orchestrate the operations.  However they also cast a long environmental shadow, result in meat that tastes quite bland, and further dumb-down the rural populations that make CAFO's run.

The good news (as you probably know if you are reading this blog) is that relationship marketing is on the rise.  Across the nation there are farmers and customers connecting in growing webs of regional economic activity.   We come together for taste, for diversity, for conscience, for connection.  We eat the food, but we leave the transaction with something else.  It is a new thing for us -- given that we are sixty years into this faceless food system -- and it feels good. 

My question is one of simple scale.  Right now us food folk--both producers and buyers--make up a paltry (very paltry) sliver of the entire food economy.  Will this sliver grow?  Will the hunger for flavor, health, and relationship continue to deepen our position as an economic force?  Or will it just be a novelty on the sidelines that economists talk about in passing.  We shall see.

The important thing to note is the presence of instability in our food system.  It doesn't seem too far of a stretch to suggest that anything devoid of relationship is inherently unstable.  Perhaps common sense or basic decency goes along with relationship and when a system becomes faceless, it also becomes dumb and cruel and wobbly.  The financial system has gone down that road.  And it doesn't seem to far of a stretch to suggest that our food system has as well.

Now don't get depressed.  I'm farming because a regionally produced product flies in the face of this reality.  Just go scout out a farmer.  Get to know her.  Strike up a conversation.  It could be the  beginning of a great relationship.

PS:  On a practical note, consider giving up meat when you go out to eat--I just did this recently.  Enjoy big burgers and steaks from happy-grass beef at home, but just say no to CAFOs!

Guy Writes: Synergy on the Farm

The talk referenced in this article can be found on the TED talks website (www.ted.com). If you haven’t discovered TED talks yet, let me pause to remark on their extraordinary quality. Here I live in a rural part of Washington state and have access to some of the best minds alive – thanks to TED and a good high speed internet connection. Check it out. It’s perfect when doing dishes!

Last night, I listened to a talk by Michael Pollan on the internet.  He discussed the value of working synergistically with nature and offered up his poster-boy farmer, Joel Salatin, as an example of such synergy.  Michael’s talk wasn’t new material for me.  I’ve already read about chicken-tractors, salad-bar beef, and Joel Salatin’s “Polyface Farm” in numerous books and articles.  

This attention has bought Joel considerable fame and while he has been basking in his new limelight, I’ve been in the bilge of our own farm ship just fighting to keep things afloat.  Lofty ideas that come wrapped up with words like “synergy” don’t offer much relief to those on the bucket brigade.  Which is to say, my eyes have glazed over these past few years when people start talking “new systems” in agriculture.  I just want a system that pays the bills.

The good news is that even in the midst of this economic downturn, our farm is chugging along.  Dad always said that people have to eat.   Turns out he was right.  And so, last night, I found myself listening to Pollan with a bit of fresh perspective.   Diving into the grubby details of exactly what he means by “synergy” is material for a farm walk or conference session, but let me say that the basic idea is that all the units on the farm work together.  Waste goes into compost goes onto crops.  Crops go into products go into kitchens. Sun goes into grass goes into animals goes into kitchens.  And so on. 

Salatin calls his place “Polyface” because it is a farm with so many sides.  The Sunshine Farm and Tunnel Hill Winery easily falls into the polyface camp.  Our work to date has been to develop these many sides – the winery, the vegetables, the beef, the U-Pick, the CSA.  Our work ahead will be to link them up, to take the product from one and feed it to the next.  To take the waste from one and fertilize the next. 

We’ve started doing this just a little.  We now sell our grass-fed beef in the market.  (Previously it was available only by the quarter or half.)  And with the new wine cooler in the market, sales of Tunnel Hill Pinot, Riesling, and Syrah have picked up nicely.  A small seasonal restaurant is on the horizon for the winery, which will feature the fresh product coming in from the fields.

But even beyond these rather obvious links, there are others less visible links to be made. The Sunshine Farm needs a bonafide composting program.  I don’t have ambitions of producing all of our own fertility, but I would like to take our existing waste and make a high-grade compost for the veggie fields.  The Sunshine Farm needs a bona fide pasture management system.  Right now we turn the four-legged creatures loose and they eat wherever and whatever they want.  This has led to some degraded pasture sorely in need of rehabilitation.  The list is long. 

One thing I’ve learned since moving back to the farm in 2003: it is really easy to make lists like this.  But it takes time and money to implement.  That’s probably why I’ve been so distant to these basic yet challenging ideas.  Composting and pasture management don’t yield immediate results.  They are investments in the long-term health of the soil.  But it is hard to think long-term in the midst of crisis.

Thankfully, I feel like we have weathered the worst of our farm’s crisis.  Regrettably, I know there are other farms who are in the midst of the storm, or who have yet to enter.  Certainly the phrase, ‘steady as she goes’ has new meaning to me now.  Despite the forces that push and pull, the critical piece of survival and prosperity seems to be staying steady, staying focused, regardless of the gales.

And so I’ll raise my hand now; a little weather-beaten and worn, but still standing, with resources to boot.  “Yes, Mr. Pollan, I’d like to synergize.”  Stay tuned for more.

Grass-fed Beef

Time to sign up for your share of Sunshine-raised beef!

Our eight steers have been happily grazing all season long in green pastures, overlooking our veggie fields and enjoying the gorgeous view of Lake Chelan.  Now they're looking for a good home in a friendly family freezer!

Sunlight, nutritious pasture, and fresh air make for a healthy cow.  These cows have never received hormones or antibiotics.  Grass-fed means a better ratio of Omega-3s to Omega-6s than supermarket beef.  Our beef is corn-finished to mellow the flavor.  The beef is also dry aged, not wet aged like most supermarket beef.  Our customers can't say enough good things about the flavor and texture of this beef!

Our beef is available by the half or by the quarter.  A half will feed a family of four for a year.  It's about 180-250 lbs of meat depending on the size of the animal (rough cost of $800-$1100).  A quarter is half that:  90-125 lbs of meat at $400-$550.  The approximate price of the beef cut and wrapped is $4.30/lb.

What a quarter beef looks like. This is in our home upright freezerA $50 deposit will reserve your beef.  The butcher date is in January.  You must pick up your own beef at butcher shop in Omak in February.  You will be able to specify the types of cuts you would like to the butcher.  All these details to follow. 

Deposits can be sent to:  The Sunshine Farm 37 Highway 97A Chelan, WA 98816.  For more info, contact Rachel at 509-670-8958 or Rachel@sunshinefarmmarket.com.