squash

Day 174 #365DaysWild

A poor season for winter squash. Always late to set fruit,  the high summer and early autumn were grey and gave those squash that were produced insufficient time too cure properly.

Squash should store well into the New Year but this years crop is rotting early. Insufficiently seasoned in the late summer sun.

So, a double-quick roast squash soup:

Squash cleaned, sliced, anointed with oil and black pepper then into the oven at 200C for 50 mins till soft.

Three tablespoons of split peas into a small pan and simmered until soft.

Meanwhile.

Tablespoon of cumin seeds quickly roasted in oil 

Two onions diced and added.

Garlic and ground coriander added.

Frozen oven-roasted defrosted and added.

Roasted squash chopped and added.

Boiling water and stock cubes added with bay laves and cinnamon stick

Simmer.

Whizz soup sufficiently to leave some unblitzed.

Add cooked split peas.

A couple of teaspoons of ginger paste.

Season.

Serve

Growing one’s own food gives the gardener a glimpse of how precarious was the lives of our forbears. A failed crop could have serious consequences for feeding the family.

We have recourse to supermarkets.

But all over the world the usual vagaries of seasonal conditions are now compounded by those of climate change. Subsistence farming must be increasingly precarious with each passing year.