Mitch and I love making simple dishes and baked goods with abundance from the garden. Our fall weekends have been spent harvesting, fall gardening and composting, and creating magic in both kitchens with our Vermont bounty! Enjoy these two recipes we've been savoring at the homestead.

Leek and Kale Stuffed Squash

• 2 delicata squash - cut in half, seeds scooped out - lie flat in baking pan
• 2 tbs butter
• 5-6 leeks, 2 large - sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped kale
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup creme fraiche
• 4 ounces grated Gruyere cheese
• salt and pepper
• fresh thyme

Heat butter in saucepan. Add leeks, cover and sweat 10 minutes. Add kale, saute for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in mustard, creme fraiche, and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in thyme. Fill squash with leek mixture. Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes. Serve and scoop!

Celery Sage Bread

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup fresh sage leaves, chopped
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup pureed celery

In large bowl combine flours, cornmeal, sage, baking powder, salt and pepper. In smaller bowl combine olive oil, egg, milk, wine, and celery. Stir wet ingredients into dry and mix until blended. Plop into bread pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

This was the year of the tomato! Not since 2008 have we grown so many tomatoes. In 2008 we lived in East Charlotte, Vermont, in the Lake Champlain Valley where, on average, it was ten degrees warmer than it is up Spruce Mountain in Plainfield, Vermont.

The tomatoes ripened on the vine without the help of a cold frame, which amazed me. And we didn't get blight because of how Spruce Mountain blocks weather patterns coming from the south and west. If September wasn't as glorious as it was with no frosts the whole month, we would have very few tomatoes. But, we have plenty! Sixteen quarts of salsa and nine quarts of tomato sauce later, they are still growing.

However, many of the tomatoes are still green and now the frosts are coming. So, we picked the entirety, washed and dried them and then separated them by more than half ripe and less than half/green. 

We laid the somewhat ripe tomatoes on a tablecloth on the kitchen table where they will ripen over the next week or so and give us a steady supply of ripe tomatoes through October.

We placed the green tomatoes on paper towels in cardboard boxes where they will sit in our cold storage room in the basement between 50-55 degrees. They should ripen through the next 2-3 months and should give us tomatoes through the holidays!

The trick to slow ripening green tomatoes is to check them often and remove any that are starting to rot and make sure none of the tomatoes touch one another. And that they are stored under 60 degrees with low humidity (we often run the dehumidifier).