Fall is the perfect time to get in the kitchen and cook up the produce from your garden!

We here on the Planter Team wanted to share a few of our favorite recipes to make use of our fall harvests. We hope you’ll take ideas and inspiration from these recipes to use up your own garden bounty this fall!

Rhubarb jelly (and other preserves) - Contributed by Wren

Two jars of rhubarb jelly on a wooden board in the garden

I grew up making jams and jellies with my mom. She’d wake us up early on the weekend and we’d drive out to a U-Pick Strawberry field where we’d spend hours trying to get our money’s worth by filling up buckets and punnets to the brim with sweet little berries. Then we’d come home and spend the rest of the day (if not two) making jar after jar of some of the best jams I’ve ever had. I always complained about the process as a kid, but as I grew older I started noticing how fond I was of the process of jam making, and now that I’m an adult I miss those days a lot. I most often think about strawberry jam in the summer, but in the fall, that was the best time for rhubarb jelly. As someone who messes up their jams and jellies a lot more than my mom does, this recipe is pretty easy to follow (rhubarb jelly recipe: https://creativecanning.com/rhubarb-jelly/).

One of my favorite things about this recipe is how many variations you can make with it. It could just be rhubarb jelly, or you can add strawberry, or apple juice, or cinnamon! This jelly can either give you a burst of summer or fall flavor depending on what you decide to put in it.

The base ingredients are:

  • 1½ lbs. Rhubarb
  • 4 cups granulated sugar
  • One package powdered regular pectin (1.75 oz.)

Although jelly is most often used on toast or English muffins, my favorite bread of choice to pair this jelly with is a warm, homemade waffle! Creative Canning suggests using this jelly also as a glaze for grilled meats! I’m going to have to try this.

Here are a few of my other favorite fall preserve recipes:

Bread and butter pickles: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/bread-and-butter-pickles/

Sweet pickle relish: https://www.savingdessert.com/homemade-sweet-pickle-relish-garden-to-table/

Salsa: https://www.delishknowledge.com/the-best-homemade-salsa-for-canning/

Zucchini bread - Contributed by Wren

A slice of zucchini bread on a pink glass plate in the garden

Last summer, my partner and I grew 8 ball squash in our garden for the first time and it made the most delicious zucchini bread! Unfortunately, the squash beetles got to the plant and completely destroyed it, so we were settled on not growing any gourds this year to hopefully be rid of the squash beetles. To our surprise, one of the old 8 ball squashes must have self-seeded because we had a new squash plant pop up all on its own in the middle of summer! And you know what that means…We gotta make zucchini bread.

I made banana and zucchini bread a lot growing up, but my partner wanted to try out making it himself. He’s really fond of this recipe: https://smittenkitchen.com/2019/08/ultimate-zucchini-bread/ because of how crispy the top can get. He said the trick is to leave it uncovered so the top doesn’t get moist (and he was right!).

You’ll need:

  • 2 cups (13 ounces or 370 grams) grated, packed zucchini (or 8 ball squash), not wrung out, grated on the large holes of a box grater
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup (160 ml) of a neutral oil (I use safflower), olive oil, or melted unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup (95 grams) packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons (25 grams) raw or turbinado sugar

The recipe does a good job walking you through all the steps so I highly recommend looking it up. And I have to say, it’s definitely one of the best zucchini breads I’ve ever had.

Acorn squash boats with sausage and apples - Contributed by Samantha

Squash boats with sausage and apples on a decorative plant

I’ve had an excellent little crop of “Honey Bear” acorn squash this season, so I’ve been cooking up different variations of “squash boats.” Basically, you bake halved-squash and then fill them with a mix of rice, meat, veggies, cheese, or anything you want. This recipe is a mix of several recipes I have found online. It’s easy to personalize to your liking and add or remove ingredients.

Ingredients:

  • Olive oil (or any other light cooking oil)
  • 3 medium to large acorn squash
  • ½ of a large red onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 ½ pounds of ground pork sausage (or you can substitute rice, which would be around 7 cups of cooked rice)
  • 1 large apple, chopped I like to use a sweet variety such as Honeycrisp
  • 1-2 packed cups of chopped kale
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Optional ingredients: a few sprigs of fresh rosemary or 1 fresh sage leaf chopped up, a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the acorn squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds (save them for next years’ planting, of course). Place the halved squash upright on a baking sheet and drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Prepared acorn squash halves on a baking sheet

Cook for 40-60 minutes until the squash is tender when pierced with a fork.

While the squash is baking, heat a large skillet on medium heat and add some olive oil. Add the onion and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the sausage and cook for around 5 minutes. (If you are using rice instead, wait until the end to add it.)

Add the garlic and apples and cook for about another 5 minutes. Add the chopped kale and continue cooking until the sausage is browned and the apple pieces are tender. Add salt and pepper to your taste. At this point, you can add any additional herbs, such as rosemary or sage. Remove the cooked squash from the baking tray to your plate. Fill your squash “boat” with the mixture from the skillet. You can add red pepper flakes or a sprinkle of parmesan cheese for extra flavor!

Roasted mixed fall veggies - Contributed by Erin

Roasted vegetable in a white baking dish on a kitchen counter

Roasting veggies is one of my all-time favorite ways to use up extra garden produce in the fall! Making roasted veggies is less about following a specific list of ingredients and more about working with the veggies you have on hand. That being said, one of our family’s all-time favorite veggies for roasting is parsnips. We tried them on a whim one Thanksgiving (store-bought) and loved their sweet, starchy, almost ginger-y taste. Now roasted veggies with parsnips are a must-have on our Thanksgiving and Christmas menus, and parsnips are a must-grow in the garden!

Chopped vegetables on a baking sheet lined with foil

The original roasted mixed veggie recipe we followed was this this recipe for Roasted Vegetables from Betty Crocker. For our favorite holiday variation we replace some or all of the potatoes with parsnips and stick to the recipe mostly as written. But for everyday cooking we use this as a rough guide and swap in whatever veggies and herbs we have on hand (or, leave some out!) I find for tougher veggies like parsnips and beets it can be helpful to microwave them for several minutes first before roasting to help even out the cooking time with the more tender veggies.