menu for September 30th, 2023

Heirloom, winter squash, North Georgia Candy Roaster

Sayuri's note for 9/30/23

We harvested a lot of winter squashes this year like butternut squash, kabocha, and North Georgia Candy Roaster. Some purple sweet potatoes, taro, and potatoes are still waiting to be harvested. We need to hustle to dig them up soon. Kale, collards, mustard, turnips, napa cabbage, beets, daikon, lettuce and red cabbages are out of the ground and growing now. We are so lucky to have a good summer and fall garden this year.

I love the Autumn sky and the temperature has been so nice recently. The crickets are singing at night too. When I was little, one of my grandma's friends shared baby bell crickets (suzumushi) every early summer. We raised them in the small aquarium at the house feeding them cucumbers, eggplants, and dried bonito flakes. By Autumn they had grown and were singing and we enjoyed listening to them at night. Speaking of Autumn, what is your Autumn activity (reading, art, sports, harvest, eating)? It's the full moon on September 29th this year for Tsukimi (Jyugoya) that is honoring the harvest moon in Japan. Do you know that the Cherokee Indians called the September moon the "Nut moon"? We decorate the vegetables and fruits that we get from the garden with fifteen dango balls and flowers on this day in Japan. I remember getting Japanese pampas grass near the river side with my grandfather when I was a little. Japanese pampas grass represents rice for flower arrangements. My grandfather loved trees and plants, and he grew beautiful big chrysanthemums in Autumn every year. We decorate using chestnuts, peanuts, grapes, pears, and apples with dango balls. After the moon viewing, we ate all the decorated foods. I definitely had an appetite for Autumn.

A good friend of ours, Era Jarrard, who has chestnut trees in her yard, told me the other day that the chestnuts are starting to fall. She said that seven deer and groundhogs were coming to get them in the morning and evening, so we had better hurry up if we were going to get any this year. I told her that I am one of the animals waiting for chestnuts!

We enjoy gathering chestnuts and even planted some of them last year, and they are growing in pots now. I put some chestnuts in a plastic bag with damp potting soil and put it in the fridge for a couple of months. Check the seeds' roots growing and then plant them in the small pot. I am hoping that Era’s chestnut trees can grow in the garden and we can share them with you in the future! We put some Era’s chestnuts on the table today so you can take some of them and plant them if you like.

soup

butternut squash soup with pearl couscous and parsley (butternut squash, onion, garlic, celery, milk, Romano cheese)

main

Harvest moon homemade miso turkey/or vegetarian meatloaf with shiso (ground turkey, miso, egg, onion, mushroom, brown rice, bread crumbs, ginger, sesame seeds)

roasted kabocha with maple syrup and soy sauce, sauteed sweet corn

pole and bush green bean salad with sesame ponzu dressing

dessert

black walnuts and pecan ice cream, roasted chestnut, and shiratama dango ball with chocolate sauce

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