It’s time for another food post. Past time, actually, as I let the whole last week go by without a food post! Not that I didn’t mention it… I can’t help myself. I’m slightly, er, off balance when it comes to good food. And October is a month of good food.
I know the gardens are ending, the fresh produce is dwindling, and you’re being drawn toward those awful, picked-green and shipped-in real food imitations, all waxed up in the grocery store. Don’t do it. October is full of good things, real and good things, that you can eat without removing a layer of wax and pesticide.
Using our handy interactive peak-season map from Epicurious, we find that, in season for the month of October in the state of Missouri, we have the following delectable options:
- Apples
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Grapes
- Kohlrabi
- Pears
- Potatoes
- Pumpkins
- Raspberries
- Sweet potatoes
Not a bad list, my friends. So you’ll need to go to the map and click on your own state to find out what’s fresh for you. (I’m longing to make a trip to my home state of Mississippi for some farm-fresh collard greens and a big bucket full of muscadines. Oh, I’m starting to drool.)
Now for a quick list of what I might do with my peak-season produce, then I’ll let you go to find out what’s in store for you.
- I made a batch of homemade applesauce last week. If you’ve never had anything but store-bought, you just have no idea what applesauce is meant to be. Very easy, too. Peel, core, and dice up enough apples to fill a large pot up 3/4 of the way full. Put the apples in with about 1/2 to 1 cup of brown sugar, a sprinkle of salt, 1 cup of water, and a generous dash of both lemon juice and vanilla. Cook over low heat, stirring often and adding water when needed, for a long time: until all the apples have turned to cooked apple color and are mushy. I didn’t really even have to mush mine to make it “sauce”; they just kind of naturally do that while cooking, and I like it kind of chunky.
- I love cabbage stir-fried in a bit of vegetable oil and a lot of soy sauce, then eaten with a big bowl of rice or rice noodles. If you need more than cabbage and rice for dinner, make a pot of egg drop or wonton soup, or do a quick veggie or chicken stir fry, or pick up some egg rolls on the way home to supplement.
- This is my husband’s preferred treatment for cauliflower: wash it, chop it roughly, then saute it slowly with lots of butter. It’s not low-fat, but I agree that it’s very tasty. It’s a great comfort food on a gray winter day. I also like pureed cauliflower soup.
- I eat grapes, plain. Not really innovative, I know, but I just like them so much that they never last for any other planned use. When I make chicken salad, which isn’t often, I always add grapes. And then I eat the rest of the bunch along with the chicken salad…
- Kohlrabi… I have no idea. Somebody help me out here.
- I like to simmer pears with a little sugar and lemon juice, and maybe a dash of vanilla and eat them with my oatmeal in the morning, over ice cream or pound cake, or just by themselves.
- My favorite way to cook potatoes (who is surprised by this?):creamy, garlicky, chive-topped mashed potatoes. This is my idea of the ultimate comfort food. Baked potatoes are also a great, filling lunch, topped with whatever you have on hand that sounds good on a potato.
- Pumpkins, of course, are for pumpkin pie, or perhaps for a roasted and then pureed winter vegetable soup, seasoned with a bit of curry powder and served with thin, crisply toasted slices of homemade bread, well-buttered.
- As far as raspberries, see the note on grapes, above. Except raspberries never make it into chicken salad or any kind of salad or any other food preparation. I eat them. They’re gone. They don’t survive a day in my kitchen.
- Baked sweet potatoes, with a dollop of butter and just a hint of brown sugar and cinnamon are great, literally, for any of our three traditional meals.
What will you do with your produce?
Image Credit: maesejose.
My granny taught me how to make real, farm-style mashed potatoes that are good enough for a main dish with another veg on the side (the cauliflower thing sounds great). Anyway, my potatoes are so good my hubby told me no taking mash to potlucks; he says he’d forever have to share then, and he wants ALL the mashed potatoes! I love the guy, what can I say?
Thanks for the list, I was wondering if there are lists available for other countries/areas. It is sad that people are so out of touch with food production that they need to be told what is in season .
I’m off to buy some apples! I found a recipe for a pie that my aunt used to make and it is delicious!