By Isis Ulery Chapman, Seacoast Eat Local intern
This Saturday, November 7th is the last Portsmouth Farmers’ Market of 2015, and the end of the outdoor markets is sneaking up on us. There will be two whole weeks between the last outdoor market and the first indoor market and I know my family and a few others are planning on stocking up for the gap period.
Some great items that store well are potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, pumpkins, garlic, Brussels sprouts, apples and various squashes, which I love to use when making homemade squash ravioli. We will also be stocking up on meat for the freezer.
I found this great chart of the preferred temperature to store vegetables:
Some of my favorite ways to use these fall vegetables are cubing a mix of vegetables, tossing with oil, salt, pepper, roasting in the oven at 350°F until tender and placing an over-easy fried egg on top. You can add different spices as well, I enjoy adding curry and a pinch of brown sugar sometimes. This is a great recipe because you can use any vegetables you have, although my favorite combination is squash, brussel sprouts, onions, apples and potatoes, sweet or white.
I also love making homemade butternut squash ravioli, which you can also substitute with a different squash or a mix of vegetables. If you don’t have mascarpone cheese, you can substitute it with plain yogurt or sour cream. I base my ravioli off this recipe.
There are just a few more outdoor markets left but the winter markets start November 21st.