What Are You Eating in the Fall

[Rufassa]

I am not sure how many of you attempt to eat foods that are in season but I do and I am finding it harder to be as creative now than I was in the Summer and Spring. With that said I have two questions.

1) What foods are you eating in the colder months. I hear that it should be leafy greens and root vegatables but I haven't mastered the art of many root vegetables (other than carrots) so I wanted to see what someone else would say.

2) I have the following foods that I purchased from a local farmer and I would like to know if anyone has any good recipes to prepare them:

Pumpkin
Hopi
Delecta
Winter Squash
Acorn Squash

[walnutty]

I don't eat any of these items (although I did make a raw pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving last year).

You could always spiralize the squash for raw noodles/pasta.

My favorite fall veggie are parsnips!

[cara4art]

I'll be willing to bet that with those squashes you could shred them fine by way of a grater, spiralizer, etc. and make "noodles"(I'm going to try this myself as there are a ton of yams and winter squashes around right now and will be for months). Mix these with your favorite raw noodle toppings like homemade dressings/sauces and you're good. Or you could take those shreds and blend them up with avocado and seasonings for a wonderful winter soup that you could warm slightly - just a couple of ideas here.
But if one looks around there are good many excellent fall and winter foods - pomegranites, persimmons, various kinds of apples and pears are plentiful right now, and citrus of all sorts will be coming in soon, including the wonderful blood oranges. For nuts, walnuts, almonds and pecans are wonderful compliments to the fall fruits, as well as our trusty and cheap sunflower and sesame seeds. Lots of veggies too including broccoli and cauliflower, various cabbages, and heavier dark greens, the squashes you mention, yams, onions of various sorts - all of these are powerhouses that deserve to star in anyone's raw food plan. A great thing to have on hand is cauliflower "rice" where you've grated or processed the cauliflower into tiny pieces and marinated it with some seasonings. Then you have something you can throw in with other goodies into that green burrito made with a collard green(another fab thing IMO) Stick some raisins and finely-chopped up mint leaves into that cauliflower rice with either Mediterranean or Indian seasonings and you're good along with some more chopped up veggies or greens. If you look around I'm sure you'll find plenty of ideas. Walnut pates are good too along with this stuff. Nut mylks with a hit of spice work for colder weather work too. During the winter, the produce available and cold weather crops are by nature more dense to provide us with some sustenance during the colder months - nature provides so well if we give her a chance to! Depending on where you live, the selection might not be as great to a greater or lesser degree than say, August where it seems that everything in the book is available and plentiful! For apples, how about a raw apple "crisp" or "pie" or raw applesauce(for something quick)with chopped walnuts, dates and a bit of cinnamon?
Last but not least, here's something to keep in mind about how well nature provides - in Chinese medicine, the pear is considered a major lung tonic and is good when you are having winter illnesses. Guess when those pears are available - during the fall and winter, of course!

[jacsam]

I have made the pumpkin pie which is really good (recipe from purely delicious magazine - it's on this forum - do a banana search). I also like just the filling to this pie and sprinkle some nuts on top. Noodles for your marinara sause is great with squash. I also like to make chips with them in the dehydrator.