At the very beginning of our growing season, September and October, many farmers in South Florida plant their first round of squash. The young plants can handle the intense heat that can sometimes extend into October (or November!) and they flower and start making fruit quickly, which is appealing to farmers during the start of their planting so that they can start harvesting and selling sooner. We tend to avoid growing the cucurbit family at our farm... thats pumpkins, summer and winter squash, melons and and cucumbers, so the squash bounty in your share today most likely came from the fields of French Farms, in Homestead. Farmer Chris takes a large portion of his fields and covers it in reuseable ground cloth, making the perfect weed free environment for squashes and melons.  South Florida farmers grow curcurbits twice per year; once in October and again in January, so expect squash again during the middle of the shares. 

There are plenty of fun varieties to chose from, yellow crooknecks are classic as are italian zucchini, however we also love these extra long "tromboncino" squash, and multicolored "patty pan" aka flying saucer squash. 

Don't laugh, but if youre looking for fun new ways to use your squash look into the "spiralizer". Its an affordable wacky kitchen tool that takes lots of different fruits and veggies and turns them into spirals, or long pasta noodles! Farmer Tiffany has a gluten free roommate who makes green papaya, summer squash, and even jicama into healthy pasta alternatives. Heres a pretty tasty looking recipe for a summer squash spiralized noodle dish. 

Slow cooking summer squash in its own juices, olive oil, and garlic will help bring out its sweet nutty flavor, which can be quite mild if quick cooked or eaten raw. Heres a recipe to get you started. And heres a cheesy video of someone spiralizing a zucchini!