Butternut Squash and Raspberry Harvesting

The past couple weeks have been never-ending red raspberries and butternut squash - what a delight to pick, eat, share, and preserve. My freezer, and not to mention my mom's chest freezer, are stuffed for the winter with my picks of the summer. My vacation two weeks ago had 3 days of keeping the oven fired to cook up the squash, then mashing and freezing in two-cup bags - the perfect quantity for many recipes; pie, bars, and of course soup and whipped squash with a little brown sugar. Yum. I told my hubby yesterday, I think I'll skip buying fruit this winter. I have enough raspberries and cantaloupe to last me the winter (I think). That'll be a huge cost savings, not to mention most fruit shipped from who-knows-where is not exactly the best there is. We're both going to try the buying local this winter. We have the pleasure of the Friday evening Farmer's Market outside of Gratz, better known as "the Auction." Its very countrified, complete with the spitting oldsters talking PA Dutch, but its also local for the most part. I have to watch some of the produce stands 'cause some of them ship stuff in from afar. But a lot of them use the PA Preferred logo, so I'll look at those. We're moving away from the weekly big trips to the Giant. Its time to shift the buying back to the community. It'll be an eye-opening winter!