Squash and Apple Bake

I remember driving through the country with my mom one day. I may have been fourteen, fifteen years old. She asked, “Would you ever marry a farmer?” Being a young woman with visions of business suits and briefcases, I scrunched up my nose. “No way!” Then she altered the question: “What about an organic farmer?” That made me pause, but in the end I was sure that the grass was a brighter shade of green outside the wheat fields and cattle pastures of the upper Midwest.


So I explored. I walked through the sandy soils of Spain, the Alps of Switzerland, the parking-lot-covered swamps of god-ridden Florida, the type-A personality-driven frenzy of Washington DC. My friends and family would wonder where I got my wanderlust, tracking my journey by each travel-worn postcard.

Then I came home. And then I met a boy. And then I felt my toes digging deep into the soil and rooting me to this spot. And in an about-face from that teenage conversation years ago, I’d like to be an organic farmer myself someday.

Well, not a farmer per se. Maybe “homesteader” would be a more appropriate term. A little land, a little cabin, a big garden, a few chickens – this has become my goal, a life of sustainability. I find myself browsing hobby farm websites and looking for land auctions, picking out favorite DIY home plans and pricing out windmills. Does anyone else do this? Or have I just been reading too much Wendell Berry?


I asked my mom to send me the recipe for one of my favorite dishes: squash and apple bake. I always request it for Thanksgiving dinner. Forget the turkey; just make sure we have squash and apples on the table. Since I have both squash (from my garden) and apples (from mom’s apple tree), I wanted to make this warm, comforting dish for myself. So she sent me the recipe with this notation:

Just a little history on this recipe. When my Mom was teaching at the country school near Grassy Butte in 1977, I was 'chief cook and bottle washer' for my Dad and brothers. During that time, I found this recipe in one of Mom's cookbooks, and it has been one of my favorites ever since.

Of course. How did I not realize this before? My mom was a farm girl. My grandma was a farm girl. Before that nearly everyone was some sort of farmer, if only having a garden for themselves. I’m a first-generation urban girl (if you can call Bismarck urban). The first generation to drink milk from a supermarket carton rather than fresh from the cow out in the barn. The first generation to not know how to saddle and ride a horse. The first generation to live in a house built by a stranger rather than family. And somehow, all these life “improvements” have left me unfulfilled. Somehow, I still want to go back to the land and the simplicity of chopping wood, digging potatoes, and feeding chickens. Somehow, I’d be happy to trade my J.Crew sweaters for a Carhartt jacket if it meant freedom in the Thoreauvian sense of the word.

I know I’m romanticizing it. I know that a homesteader’s life isn’t always a rosy one. Nonetheless, every day we make choices of voluntary simplicity, even if it’s something as basic as enjoying homegrown squash and apples. I like to think that a simple dish, much like a simple life, is not only sustenance – it’s an act of grace.

Squash and Apple Bake

2 lbs. winter squash (butternut or acorn)
1/3 - 1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. melted butter
1 Tbls. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 t. mace, allspice, basil, cinnamon, ginger OR cloves
2 baking apples, cored and cut in 1/2" slices

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove seeds and fiber from squash; peel squash; cut in 1/2" slices.
Stir remaining ingredients except apple slices together.
Arrange squash in greased 9x13” pan; top with apple slices.
Sprinkle sugar mixture over top; cover with foil.
Bake 50-60 minutes or until squash is tender.