From the Gardens Registrar: Words on Winter Squash; Eagle Heights Drive; Harvest Moon Walk THURSDAY at Eagle Heights; No Workday This Weekend

HARVESTING WINTER SQUASH – Your winter squash will keep better if they are fully mature when you pick them. The details depend on the variety, but the fruit will turn a darker color, and the rind will be hard. Cut the vine two or three inches from each squash, and don’t try to use the stem as a handle. Store your squash in a dry, cool area, preferably in a single layer. If you have under-ripe or damaged fruit, it won’t keep as well, so use it up earlier. The current long-range forecast, always subject to change, is for continued warmer than usual temperatures, so I don’t think frost is going to be an issue for the next couple of weeks, at least.

Although each type of squash has its own taste and texture, recipes for winter squash, including pumpkin, are pretty interchangeable. Pumpkin pie is excellent made with butternut squash, and it’s much easier peeling and cutting up a butternut than it is a pumpkin. Here is a website from the University of Illinois Extension, with a lot of great information about winter squash: https://extension.illinois.edu/veggies/wsquash.cfm

EAGLE HEIGHTS DRIVE RESURFACING – As you all know, this project was originally scheduled to be completed early in August. Unfortunately, some of the work was done incorrectly. It has now been resurfaced again, and the project is finally almost done. The street is reopening for two-way traffic, and our regular parking spots for the garden will probably reopen early next week. Just in time for lugging home big winter squash.

HARVEST MOON POT-LUCK AND WALK - This Thursday, October 5 will be the Harvest Moon, and we’re having a community celebration! (I apologize for scrambling the day and date in previous communications.) The evening will begin at 6:00pm with a potluck meal at the Arbor, featuring everyone's fresh produce. Then enjoy a silent walk through the gardens under the moonlight. Feel free to bring a musical instrument if you would like. Come share your harvest, and enjoy the beauty of our garden under a full moon. Weather note: There is a 50% chance of showers, so the event may be rained out. But if the weather looks clear, please try to come. 

FALL HARVEST FEST AT FH KING – And if it isn’t raining on Friday, F.H. King will be having a harvest event at their garden on October 6, with a potluck dinner and live music at 5:00pm.

NO WORKDAY THIS WEEKEND Workdays will resume next weekend, and will continue well into November, in case you still need to do yours.

Happy gardening,

Kathryn