Get Fresh Blog

Local Food Challenge: Autumn Harvest - Photography by Caprina Valentine

For me October = Pumpkins. A few years ago, I started a tradition/challenge for myself of cooking at least one pumpkin dish per week thru the month of October, which I dubbed Pumpkin Month. This month’s comes a little early, as I planned to cook this for next week’s Local Food Challenge post, the first week of October. (This week was going to feature produce from the Colwood Market, but they’ve closed up shop early; not enough customers!)

Last year I did an awesome Pumpkin Soup, but I’ve always wanted to do a Stuffed Pumpkin and after a little internet research, I found it’s pretty much a catch-all “casserole” idea. Great for using up some odds and ends you’ve already got as well as whatever is fresh and in season locally. For this you’ll want to use a small Sugar Pie Pumpkin, a sweeter variety than the common Cinderella-perfect Field Pumpkin used for carving. My pumpkin was grown on Gobind Farm in Saanich.

Stuffed Pumpkin Ingredients

INGREDIENTS: (* local)
1 pie pumpkin (* Gobind Farms)
1 cup cooked brown basmati rise
1/2 leek
1 large or 2 small red/orange peppers (* SunWing)
1 small tomato (* our greenhouse)
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup crushed almonds
1 tsp honey (* Babe’s)
1 tbsp butter

Stuffed Pumpkin Prep + Cook

COOK 1/3 cup aromatic brown basmati rice with 1 1/2 cups boiled water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes. (It will cook the rest of the way inside the pumpkin with the juices of the vegetables.)

PREP in the meanwhile… dice peppers and tomato, slice leek, crush almonds. In a large bowl, mix leek, peppers, tomatoes, cranberries, almonds and honey. When the rice is near done, strain and melt in 1 tbsp butter. Mix rice with veggies and stuff your pumpkin!

COOK whole stuffed pumpkin, with top lid fit back on for 1 hour @ 400, then turn it down to 350 for another 1/2 hour.

SERVE with sour cream, salad and/or fresh tomatoes.

Stuffed Pumpkin

Other delicious variations could include sausage!  (I may try this again with Galloping Goose Sausage.)

Sherry & Elisabeth at the Get Fresh Booth

On Saturday, I headed up to Cowichan with Sherry to meet up with Elisabeth & Noah and support the Get Fresh booth at the Cowichan Valley Food & Wine Festival. Elisabeth did an amazing job coordinating a bountiful booth – an abundant market stall, representing the harvest of the Get Fresh Guide. And despite the gloomy skies threatening rain all day and keeping crowds away, the Driftwood Beer, Sea Cider and Victoria Gin tastings attracted the folks who did brave the elements. (I don’t know how many times I heard, “We can’t sell it, we can only share it.”)

Rhubarb, Tomatoes, Peppers and Zucchini

Truthfully, I have been somewhat uninspired in the kitchen as of late. It has been emotionally overwhelming dealing with two aging and ill parents (my mother is now on that bandwagon with a slipped disc and burnout). Supporting people you love, who are in pain, has its transference of energy. Maybe that’s why by the end of the day, I ended up with the headache of all headaches – like a pitchfork being rammed into my forehead (farm reference!)

Nonetheless, I made the best of it and stayed on until 6pm for a Local Dinner showcasing pumpkin soup, chicken cacciatore, risotto, roasted tomato, beans and green salad, with all the produce and poultry coming from the OUR Eco Village farm on-site. I was too full to even attempt dessert! Miraculously my headache lifted with the sustenance and my eyes grew a little brighter again, as we listened to guest speaker, Carolyn Herriot, author of the new Zero Mile Diet. This of course jogged our collective memory of the original 100 Mile Diet and mention of this year’s Food TV’s reality television series, the 100 Mile Challenge, where 6 families in Mission, BC, are followed thru the challenge for 100 days. (It is well worth watching online, tho their website is having issues lately.)

Big Beautiful Beets in a Basket!

As the dusk turned to dark and the clouds finally let their hold go, our evening came to an end. Seeing as the booth had a slow day, I bought a grocery bag full of Get Fresh Guide produce, including some of these big, bold and beautiful beets, keenly admired by folks all day. So with a bit of nourishment and inspiration, I head home… and the beet goes on… (Mum even had a nice surprise for me when I returned: the last of the fresh tomatoes from our greenhouse!)

Rhubarb Roasted Beets & Green Salad

RHUBARB ROASTED BEETS INGREDIENTS (* local):
1 red beet *
1 golden beet *
2 sticks of rhubarb *
juice of 1 orange
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp Babe’s honey balsamic vinegar *

GREEN SALAD INGREDIENTS (* local):
lettuce
tomato * (from our greenhouse!)
cucumber *
carrot, grated
sprouts *
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp Babe’s honey balsamic vinegar *
1 tbsp Babe’s honey *

Beets (Red & Golden), Tomatoes, Sprouts, Cucumber and Rhubarb

1) Preheat oven to 400. Cut beets into small bite-sized chunks (I noticed how SOFT the local ones are, which makes this step easy). Toss in a bowl with some olive oil and a little sea salt. Spread onto a baking pan and roast at 400 for 30-40 minutes until beginning to turn golden.

2) Heat 1 tbsp oil over medium heat, add chopped rhubarb and stir fry until beginning to soften. Juice 1 orange and stir in juice (and pulp for extra thickness if you like). Simmer and reduce the liquid by half. The rhubarb will fall apart into a sweet jam-like mash. Add 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (use Babe’s since it’s got a touch of sweetness too!) Remove from heat or turn down low to keep warm while you make the salad.

3) Whisk together 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 1 tbsp honey to make the dressing. Combine choped lettuce, grated carrot, sprouts and sliced tomato and cucumber. Optional: sprinkle with pepitas, sunflower seeds or goat cheese.

4) Serve the beets with rhubarb on top and side salad drizzled with homemade dressing.

Rhubarb Roasted Beets & Green Salad

Ahh, the last days of summer… crickets chirping, golden sun setting as I pick the last blackberries from the back driveway.  “Is this cheating, if I use foraged food from my own backyard? (Literally.)” I think as I munch another berry that bursts between my stained fingers. Should’ve been out here picking much sooner, after the last good rain (Tuesday), but it’s been a busy couple of weeks dealing with more doctors appointments for aging parents, a full workload, semi-distance relationship and a Fringe Festival thrown in for good measure.

I have to say I was so inspired by Sherry’s blackberry pancake post earlier this week as well as Heidi’s blueberry shortcake, that I decided to give scones a try. (I also have yet to ever make scones, so it’s a check in the box next to “Try something new.”) This recipe comes from my very first cookbook (a Christmas present when I graduated highschool!), aptly named “How to Cook: The Boiled Egg and Beyond.”

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 oz butter, soft, chopped
3/4 cup milk
+ as many blackberries as you want to pick!

Homemade Whole Wheat Scones

1) Preheat your oven to 400F. Lightly oil a baking sheet.

2) Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

3) Add the chopped butter to the flour mix and rub in until it looks like fine breadcrumbs (small clumps).

4) Mix in the milk and knead into a ball.  You can/should mix in half your blackberries as you’re adding in the milk (I forgot… was so in the moment of kneading the dough that I didn’t realize until I had my dough rolled flat!)

5) Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll flat (or mash with your hand, as I did, not able to find the rolling pin at the moment) until 1-1.5 inches thick. Cut circles from the dough, ideally with a cookie cutter (or use a drink glass).  Place your 12 rounds onto your oiled baking pan.

6) Bake 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow to cool and serve sliced open with blackberries.  (I mashed the blackberries and mixed with 2 tbsp of Babe’s blueberry honey for a little extra syrupy goodness.) SUPER YUM!

Homemade Scones with Fresh Blackberries

Photographs by Caprina Valentine.