Thanks to the bumper crop for root vegetables and squash, all the Muskegon Farmers Market stalls were selling squash for a dollar each.

On one table, we have sweet corn for sale. On another table, we have grapes, squash and pumpkins. Squash stacked in abundance upon the many tables of Robert's Produce, he's selling acorn and butternut squash at a dollar a head? A dollar a gourd? "That's a lot of food for a buck", I said. "I'm even selling the big butternut squash for a dollar each", exclaimed Bob. Which makes me wonder if I have been profligate by spending a dollar each on two bulbs of garlic? 

Mom grew squash in our garden, especially Acorn squash. We grew so many in our fields that the cold caught the unpicked gourds on the vines and held them frostily until midwinter summer, when the gourds turned to mush and then froze again. I'm betting the frozen acorn squash probably would have made a good meal if defrosted and roasted once brought inside. Mom would line a rack of the oven with foil, slice several acorn squashes in half, scoop free of seeds and roast the halves sunny side up for about an hour. Butter dolloped into hollow, I haven't forgotten spooning out the yellow pulp, scrapping the insides clean. I don't think Bob has packed up yet. Maybe I can try roasting two acorn squashes tonight. Acorn squash has to be almost impossible to burn. 

I had sat down with my coffee and scones at a picnic table, and previous diners had left a pile of crumbs upon the top. I got tired of looking at the remainders of a scone, so I swept the bits onto the concrete. Before five minutes had passed, two sparrows landed and pecked at the leavings, gathering up the mess in a flash. I enjoyed watching the pair working at my feet, and then I worried. How long until I became that man on a park bench, showing up early with day old bread to feed the pigeons?

— at Muskegon Farmers Market.

Picture of Winter Squash courtesy of Iowa State University Extension.