Uncle David Makes One Sweet Pie

Last year I had five winter squash plants.  I ended up with almost 30 buttercup squash that I needed to figure out what to do with.  I chopped up and froze a few pounds and canned the rest.  Instead of pureeing the flesh and then canning it, I cut it in to cubes and then canned it in some water.  This helps the squash get hot enough throughout the jar for food safety reasons.

I have been making soup with the canned squash for the most part, but experimented with muffins and a pie recently.  I am using it in place of pumpkin.  The muffins turned out really moist and less dense than their pumpkin counterparts.

In making a pie with homemade canned squash, I was concerned about it being too runny so I took extra care to get rid of as much liquid as possible.  Using the same technique as with the muffins, I drained the squash through a sieve and let it hang for about 30 minutes.  I then put the squash through the finest blade of my food mill.  A one quart jar of cubed squash made the same amount of puree as one can of pumpkin (15 ounces).  I then made the pie as I normally would.  The recipe I like to make uses maple syrup instead of sugar and heavy cream instead of sweetened condensed milk.  This makes for a much lighter and less sweet pie, which I really like.

The squash variety that I grew was Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Squash.  This is a buttercup squash with dark orange flesh and a sweet flavor.  I will be growing it again this year because it is quite prolific and tastes wonderful.  This seed has been selected by the Podoll family of Prairie Road Organic Seed for the exact traits I mention here and they have done a wonderful job.  If you are not sure which type of winter squash to grow this year, this should be it!  You can get their seed directly from them as of this year.  Help support a small farmer.