The last days of the fresh produce are upon us

Remove your hats, rend your garments and shed a few tears. I think we saw the last of the sweet local summer corn this past week. Things have been fading out over the past couple of weeks. I was able to score a full box of nectarines this past week, but the vendor says that’s it. Happily, we canned 56 jars of peaches to tide us over the winter, but there’s nothing like in-season fruit. Pears and apples are hitting the market in force now, of course, but the farmers’ markets will be closing next month. I see a lot of pear and apple tarts in our future.

We have a boatload of butternut squash in the garden, which will keep in the basement over the winter. Great for soup or just baking with some butter.

The tomatoes came in late this year and are finally slowing down. I’m not a big fan of raw tomatoes, but even though I tell my spouse that every year, she still plants too much and then complains that I don’t eat them. :smiley:

Well, I love fall, but I’m sure going to miss all the good stuff they grow here.

Oh, you poor temperate zoners. Come to the subtropics - we have oranges.

You can’t just bring up butternut squash soup without a recipe.

No, that can’t be. Why, if that were true, it’d be the end of Skimpy Sundress weather.

::checks calendar::

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

checks the temperature outside 104 degrees. There’s still plenty of skimpiness to be had here for a while to come.

Here you go:

Butternut Squash Soup with Star Anise and Ginger Shrimp

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger
2/3 cup chopped shallot
1-3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3 whole star anise
1 tablespoon sweet curry powder
2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1-3/4 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into ½ inch pieces (5 cups)
4 cups chicken stock or broth
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Garnish: fresh cilantro

Toss shrimp with ginger in a bowl and marinate, chilled, no longer than 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cook shallot, garlic, anise and curry powder in butter in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until shallot is softened, about 5 minutes.

Add squash and stock and simmer, uncovered, until squash is very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove star anise. Puree soup in 2 batches in a blender until very smooth, about one minute per batch, then transfer to cleaned pan and keep warm, covered.

Sprinkle marinated shrimp with salt. Heat oil in a large skillet over moderately high heat, then sauté shrimp in batches, stirring, until just cooked through, about 3 minutes per batch, and remove to paper towels. Bring soup to a simmer and season with salt and pepper. Place in shallow soup bowls, mounding three shrimp in the center and garnishing with cilantro.

Could I sub fennel seed for the star anise?

(Non chef guy.)

I would think so. Then you could just leave the seeds in the soup instead of removing them.

That sounds lovely. I like butternut squash soup to begin with, but the addition of the shrimp and spices sounds like it will really elevate it. On my ‘to try’ list for this weekend. Days are still quite warm here, but nights are starting to be chilly. Perfect soup weather.

Here’s another

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

1 large-ish butternut squash
6 apples
1 large-ish onion
1 leek (optional)
6 T butter
apple cider (optional)
one handful rice

Roast squash and apples until very soft. Saute sliced onion and leek, if you have it, in 3 T butter until soft and translucent in soup pot. Scoop flesh from roasted squash and add it to pot. Put apples in whole. Cover with water by 2 inches. Sub some apple cider (a pint or so) for some water if desired. Throw in raw rice. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 30 minutes. Place in blender with additional 3 T butter and puree til smooth. Run it through a sieve if you have one to enhance texture. Check seasoning. Enjoy.

Takes a bite of my first honey crisp apple of the season, humming turn, turn, turn.

I wasn’t able to buy and decent summer fruit this year . I got some nectarines and peaches and they were hard a rock and some got rotten before they ripen and the one that did tasted horrible able ! The water melon was horrible too. The only fruits that tasted OK were the blueberries and strawberries . The apples are too green to eat , I have given up on finding fruits to eat , bananas are the only one that been OK . The drought really took a toll on the produces this summer. :frowning:

Fruit was superb this summer in the PNW. We had an early week of hot weather that kind of sparked things, so most fruit started harvesting early. The melons in particular were like nectar of the gods, but peaches and nectarines were right up there. And the sweet corn. . .sigh.

In Northern Ohio/Western PA., the peaches were great .

Where are you located?

I tore out the rest of my garden plants this past weekend. Things were slowing down considerably and I was done with it anyway.

Got a pretty good haul this year even though some stuff didn’t quite start/make it at all.

Here in central PA the hot dry summer made the fruit so sweet. Our grapes did great, peaches are so juicy they hush and even my Dad’s old Pear tree produced tasty pears. I’m not gonna miss watering the garden every night but I will be missing the summer.

Speak for yourself. Here in S Central TX, we are surrounded by year-round farms.

My lovely Bartlett pear tree is finally done, after having given up about 4 bushels of fabulous pears this year. I made pear loaves, pear cookies, whole pears poached in sugar and white wine vinegar, pear honey… and stashed about half a bushel in the fridge to continue eating for awhile. The are ambrosial! Agreed, our peaches were divine this year.

My apples are just getting started. Pantry is out of space. The pigs will do well out of it this year except for the ones I keep for eating fresh.

Picked about 4 gallons of blackberries this year, too. Fantastic!

I’m getting ready to can 70 quarts of tomatoes… that’s a 2-year supply for me.

I will miss the sweet corn, too.

What’s wrong with butternut squash and butter?

I could never be a gourmet. X + butter is how I roll, and frozen squash is as good as most fresh squash. Unless you carmelize it while baking it. Then add butter.

Yay Honeycrisp! :smiley: Early fall is also the time when we get Moondrop grapes.

I’m going to avoid pomegranates for a while longer though.