This year we opted to plant acorn squash instead of butternut squash- the acorn variety is easier to cook the way we like (baked or grilled and filled with a brown sugar, butter,cinnamon, and raisin mixture). The smaller size makes it easier to dole out individual servings, too- each person gets half.
But I do like butternut squash, and nothing beats the scent of Carmelized Butternut Squash roasting in the oven on a cool wintry evening. Imagine my surprise, then, when I walked back to the compost pile (which I have been neglecting for quite some time), only to discover a giant butternut squash plant weaving its enormous leafy vines around the pile, with three fairly large squash already on it!
The plant must have sprouted from a rotten squash that was added to the pile last fall. Go figure. With no care, no planting, no watering, nature has carried on the way she usually does, turning seeds into plants and plants into fruit.
That is the natural order of things, after all. It was a gentle reminder that I am not really master of my garden, that in fact, I don't really do the growing at all. I am just the designated caretaker, the custodian, of nature's greater plan.
Sometimes it's nice to marvel at the beauty of it all...
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