As our regular followers know, the premier area this year is the Three Sisters Garden. Like most things around Five Feline Farm, a simple idea grows and expands into much more. This garden feature started with a vision of a simple garden plot in a Native American style. Corn supporting climbing beans, surrounded by yellow squash to double as a weed blocking mulch. The garden expanded to include an area for gourds, buckwheat, lavender, mammoth sunflowers and additional dent corns.
A recent discovery is the Google Earth view. The design was to reflect a honeycomb and without a doubt it does. The outline is less visible now that the plants are filling in, but the base is still there.
Already these plants are nourishing us. Yellow crookneck squash abounds. It is a goal to find as many delicious ways to cook this new vegetable as possible.
Perhaps we are picking them smaller but this variety seems to have a different flavor than standard yellow squash. When picked small the squash is tender yet firm enough to hold up and not become slimy. So far we have had it grilled, roasted, sautéed, added to a foil packet of green beans, dehydrated into chips, fried and in stir fry. It feels a bit like Bubba in Forrest Gump naming all the ways to cook shrimp. “Ya got ‘yer fried squash, roasted squash, squash casserole…..”
The next anticipated produce from Three Sisters will be pinto beans. These will be picked when the pods dry, then shelled and vacuum sealed. Surely pintos will produce in a more manageable quantity than yellow crookneck squash.
As always, the Farm blesses us with bounty from vegetables to a gorgeous vista.
Leave us a comment if you have a novel way to prepare yellow squash. If you are in our neighborhood and need some, let us know that too.
