Acorn squash is the first thing that tells us fall is actually here. The vines give up all at once, the garden boxes fill, and for a few weeks there are more of them than the shelf at the stand can hold. That’s fine by us, because this is the easiest vegetable we grow to cook. It doesn’t need peeling, it keeps a month or two sitting on the counter, and once it’s in the oven you can walk away from it and go do chores. This is the way we eat it most Sundays in the fall — roasted halves filled with whatever’s left in the box, which right now means cabbage, onion, and garlic. Two halves and a salad is supper.

From the farm: Acorn squash is $2 each this week. The cabbage ($2 a head), sweet onion ($2 each), and garlic ($0.70 a head) all ride along from the stand, or get the whole lot in the $15 Farm Box. Locally grown and locally sourced.

Free delivery in the Norwich and Syracuse areas; Binghamton area free on orders of $20 or more. Order from the shop or message us and we’ll add it to your route day.

The filling is a suggestion, not a rule. We’ve done it with leftover roast chicken chopped in, with a half pound of browned sausage, with rice one week and stale bread the next. The part that matters is the squash roasted cut-side down first, so the flesh steams soft and sweet before anything else goes in. Skip that and you’re waiting an extra half hour with a raw squash under your filling.

Ingredients

2 acorn squash, halved from stem to tip, seeds scooped out
2 tablespoons butter, plus a little for the squash
1 sweet onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
About 3 cups cabbage, sliced thin (roughly a quarter of a head)
1 cup cooked rice, or 1 cup of torn stale bread
1 cup shredded cheese — cheddar, swiss, whatever’s in the drawer
Optional: 1/2 pound browned sausage or a cup of chopped leftover chicken
Salt, pepper, and a pinch of dried thyme or sage
Brown sugar or maple syrup, about a teaspoon per half

Method

Heat the oven to 400°F. Rub the cut sides of the squash with a little butter and salt, lay them cut-side down on a sheet pan, and roast 30 minutes. They’re ready when a fork slides in with no fight.
While the squash roasts, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a big skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion until it’s soft and starting to brown, 8 minutes or so. Add the garlic for one more minute.
Add the cabbage with a good pinch of salt and cook, stirring now and then, until it collapses and picks up some color at the edges, about 10 minutes. It’ll look like too much cabbage when it goes in. It isn’t.
Take the skillet off the heat. Stir in the rice or bread, half the cheese, the meat if you’re using it, the thyme, and pepper to taste.
Flip the squash halves cut-side up. Spread a teaspoon of brown sugar or maple syrup over each one, then pile the filling in and over the top. Scatter the rest of the cheese on.
Back in the oven, cut-side up, for 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the tops are browned. Eat with a spoon, straight out of the shell.

Two things worth knowing. If you’re cooking for one or two, roast all four halves anyway — the filled halves reheat well in the oven the next night and the plain roasted ones mash into a good side with butter and salt. And save the seeds. Rinse them, dry them on a towel, toss with oil and salt, and roast them on the same pan for 10 minutes at the end. They’re better than pumpkin seeds.