With Halloween just around the corner, the fall season is well under way. The leaves are changing, the weather is cold and fall food is back in season.
For a lot of people, the start of October means pumpkin everything: pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin-spice lattes.
These immediate indulgences in all things pumpkin can leave us a little disillusioned with the great gourd before the season is even over. But let’s not forget all of the other wonderful foods the fall has to offer us.
“When I think of fall foods, I tend to think of hot cider, apples and cinnamon doughnuts,” said Eastern Michigan University transfer student Benjamin Bartlett.
To soothe those cravings, Wiard’s Orchard and Dexter Cider Mill are both open for the season,
serving fresh doughnuts and cider. Many apples are in season right now, including the Honey Crisp apple. The season for Honey Crisp runs through mid-October, so it is almost done for the year, but you can find many other delicious apples at any nearby orchard, farmers market or grocery store.
One of my fall favorites is homemade apple pie. A store-bought pie can usually get you by between holidays, but it really does not compare to the tasty combination of fresh-picked Michigan apples and the perfect, flaky crust you get from a pie straight out of the oven.
If you can’t get a hold of your own grandmother – or her secret recipe – and want to try your hand at making a pie, a quick Google search for “Apple Pie by Grandma Ople” will lead you to a five-star recipe with raving reviews on allrecipes.org.
If you’re looking to make a nice fall meal, winter squash is a great option.
“My favorites are spaghetti squash and acorn squash, because they’re so flexible,” said Mike Smith, who runs a chemical- and pesticide-free SolaRefuge farm near Saline. “There are so many ways you can cook them, it’s really just however you like it.”
Smith mentioned some of the ways people can prepare the spaghetti squash, including cooking it in honey or brown sugar and butter, or eating it with pasta sauce or pesto.
“You can’t forget harvest pie,” Bartlett said.
Harvest pie, one of his fall favorites, is a sweet pie that can be made with pumpkin or butternut squash, though there are a lot of variations on the dish.
“Other things that are in season right now are cabbage, brussels sprouts, obviously pumpkins, some types of garlic, and you can still find tomatoes which last until the frost comes,” Smith said.
Another one of his favorite fall veggies is the Napa cabbage.
“The Napa cabbage is great cause you can do so much stuff with it,” Smith said. “You can cook it up in stir fry and use it in a lot of Asian foods. You can put it in egg rolls. Or you can just eat it raw in a salad.”
If you are looking for good fall dishes, you can search any of these key ingredients on allrecipes.org and find tons of great recipes. You can also check back every Monday as The Eastern Echo continues its celebration of fall food in Kitchen 101.
You can find all of this produce at a local farmers market. Smith’s booth at the Ypsilanti Farmers market has a wide selection of the seasonal squash. The Ypsilanti Farmers Market’s last day is Oct.25, and the Depot Town Farmer’s Market ends Oct. 30.
If the farmers market isn’t your thing, you can also find everything mentioned here and more at the Ypsilanti Co-Op.
