The Spaghetti Squash Gift and Recipe

The spaghetti squash gift. 

I love spaghetti squash. Below this recipe is my true story of how I got this homegrown squash. 

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Lightly oil a baking sheet
3. Cut squash in half from stem to blossom end (lengthwise) and soup out seeds and pulp
4.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper 
5. Place cut side down on the prepared baking dish
6. Bake for 35-50 minutes ovens temps vary. I do 50 minutes because I am high in altitude. Honey is good drizzled over the top if desired. 

MY SPAGHETTI SQUASH STORY

Spaghetti squash grows really well in our clay soil. Each plant grew  6-7 nice yellow/lime green spaghetti squashes. Last year the squash bug got my crop of pumpkins so I opted not to grow any kind of squash this year. While shopping at a local nursery in late spring, I was attracted to a beautiful banana squash plant  in a small pot. I bought it and planted it out back away from the garden hoping the squash bug would not see it. The squash bugs came anyway and I had to pick them off one by one and also scrape off the eggs deposited on the backs of the leaves and stems. To my surprise after 3 weeks of picking off the bugs, they stopped visiting. With the daily care I gave them and the nourishing monsoon rains, the plant flourished and began to form deep yellow buds. 

A week later I noticed a squash forming!  I had visions of baking the squash in warm oven on a chilly fall day. 

A few days later I happened to notice the baby squash was 

eaten by a lucky critter, probably a squirrel or a skunk. But I still had faith it would grow nicely in spite of the eaten squashes. 

Early October, before any more fruits developed, Jack Frost came and waved his frozen wand over all the plants here in Utah. The Squash plants withered and sunk into the earth. It would seem that all my inspired action had turned into failure. But,  I had crops frozen before so I took it in stride.

 I let it go. I still loved the idea of eating squash and still had the vision of baking it in the warm oven on a chilly fall day.

A few days after the frost my husband went to get hay for our llamas and brought me a spaghetti squash! Well, what do you know ! I was so delighted. I got my spaghetti squash in spite of my troubles. The man who sells us hay had shared his crop with us. 

A week later, we went to buy 4 more bales of hay for winter. The man said, " Go to the back of my truck and get yourself a few squashes" I went back to his truck bed and it was filled with beautifully formed spaghetti squashes. I chose two. So now I have 3 homegrown delicious spaghetti squashes! I was so grateful and delighted that in spite of my dilemma with the squash bugs, the hungry critters, and Jack Frost, I had gotten the squashes I desired. They seemed to come on the Great Conveyer Belt of Life !  

Woo hoo ! Thank you, universe !

As I sit in my kitchen writing this post, I am preheating my oven on a chilly fall day for delicious oven baked spaghetti squash. I have chills writing this because I can feel the magic in this process.

Never give up on your dream or desires. The gifts are revealed to you in ways our human minds cannot yet imagine. 

Try this recipe. You can scrape the flesh with a fork and it separates like spaghetti. Top it with spaghetti sauce and meatballs or your favorite  veggies or eat it with coconut oil or butter. 

Now I am going out to check on my bundled corn stalks and my scarecrow construction.

Deborah Moen
of Little Utah Farm

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Until net time, Enjoy your time on earth and remember,

"There's a farm girl in all of us" ~ Mary Jane Butters