Tuesday night we sat down for a great homemade pizza covered in onions, goat cheese and the last of our butternut squash. It wasn't all local but the key ingredient was sweet, deep orange squash harvested eight months ago from Siemer's farm. Winter squash, especially butternut, is remarkable for the way it keeps for so long and is a key crop for seasonal eating. I highly recommend making it part of the home garden and it's not to late to plant for this season.

The recipe for the pizza comes from one of our favorite cookbooks, Serving Up the Harvest, by Andrea Chesman. The other go to cookbook in our efforts to eat seasonally is Simply in Season. (One reader pointed out that Simply in Season has a children's version.)

I asked the readers of the blog for their favorites and here's the list so far;

One reader has great memories of the Bloodroot Collective cookbooks that can be found here in "Best of..." volumes. 

I once shared an apartment with someone who had the entire collection of Bloodroot Collective cookbooks. They're arranged seasonally and have delicious food. Very earthy, 1970s feminist back-to-the-land politics, but GREAT vegetarian food. Alas, I left the cookbooks when I left New York, but I've made that version of split pea soup ever since.

Another reader writes;

I find myself having love affairs with different cookbooks...My current favorites are Serving Up the Harvest and Placer County Real Food(a book produced by two women from our local farmer's market). Both great for seasonal cooking.

The web site Simply Recipes was also mentioned as a fave. Keep the recommendations coming and I'll add a list to the sidebar of the blog based on reader recommendations.

I talk a lot about the intersections of faith and food and you might be interested to know that the Simply in Season books are an heir of the More With Less Cookbook which are both rooted in the Mennonite tradition. The Simply in Season book was actually commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee. If only more religious denominations commissioned cookbooks instead of culture wars.

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