In season: spaghetti squash

4 p.m.– 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1. Kale Fest. Community recipe contest, cooking demonstration with chef David Sweeney, cocktail demonstration with bartender Tim Frost of Illegal Foods and children's activities. East Atlanta Village Farmers Market, Atlanta. https://www.facebook.com/events/1519401268352031/

Cooking demos:

10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 3. Chef Todd Richards of White Oak Kitchen. Peachtree Road Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.peachtreeroadfarmersmarket.com

Many markets offer chef demos on an occasional or regular basis. Check your market’s website or Facebook page for more information.

FOR SALE

Just coming into season: persimmons, turmeric, turnips

Vegetables: apples, arugula, Asian greens, beets, carrots, chard, chestnuts, cucumbers, eggplant, field peas, garlic, ginger, green beans and pole beans, herbs, kale, leeks, lettuce, Malabar spinach, melons, mizuna, muscadines, mushrooms, okra, onions, pecans, peppers, popcorn, potatoes, radishes, roselle, spaghetti squash, summer squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, winter squash

— From local reports

The world of squash is a wide and all-embracing one. Cantaloupes, cucumbers, gourds, watermelons and zucchini are all related to the spaghetti squash, the only vegetable that once cooked, conveniently separates its own flesh into slender pasta-like strands. No need for a fancy Japanese vegetable noodle maker. Just steam, microwave or bake the squash in its shell and scrape out the flesh with a fork or spoon, and there you have it, a plate of gluten-free “noodles.”

Meghan Cole says spaghetti squash is a great bridge between thin-skinned summer squashes such as zephyr and zucchini and the tough-skinned hubbards and butternuts that work so well for winter storage and soups and stews. Cole is the farmer of Harvest Table Farm, now in her second full season of growing fruits and vegetables in tiny Talking Rock in Pickens County between Ellijay and Jasper.

The farm offers a community-supported agriculture program and sells its produce to a farm-to-table restaurant in Jasper and at the Saturday morning Roswell Farmers and Artisans Market.

Cole grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, and says you would have thought the chances of her becoming a farmer were pretty slim. But an interest in medicinal herbs drew her to a family friend’s 350-acre farm in southern Missouri where she helped tend the land and made the connection between good food and good health. “I soon realized that if I ate seasonal fresh food, I really didn’t need medicine. Food is medicine when it’s fresh and seasonal and local.”

She went on to work on farms from California to North Carolina. She met Ben Jones in 2013, and the next year she decided to try her hand at farming in Talking Rock on 96 acres that have been in Jones’ family for six generations. “I’m only planting on about an acre because out of that 96 acres we don’t have a lot of flat land. We’re in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and we’ve carved out space for production in nooks and crannies where we have flat land like along the river bottoms.”

Cole plants Pinnacle, a variety of spaghetti squash that produces smaller fruits. “If you put a large spaghetti squash in a CSA box or on your table at the market it can be a little daunting, she said. “Smaller squash are easier to use up. It’s also a variety that grows more compactly so we can get more plants in a given area. We’ve got between 200 and 300 plants, and each will produce from four to six fruits.”

She plants her seeds in special trays and tends her seedlings well. “Planting this way, I can keep an eye on the plants and make sure they’re well-watered. I like setting out individual plants versus putting seeds into the ground and saying a little prayer hoping they’ll germinate. When that tiny plant comes up a lot can happen. And this way, I know exactly how many plants I have.”

Squash plants that go into the ground in late May or early June produce fruit by mid-August and can be harvested into September. The squash are cured for about a week to toughen up the skin. That makes it easier to transport them to market with little damage. Once cured, they’ll store for several months, although not as long as those hard shelled cousins.

At the farm, a favorite way to serve spaghetti squash is to cook the flesh into noodles and then top those noodles with the first of the season’s dark leafy greens like bok choy and tatsoi sauteed with scallions and garlic and seasoned with tamari. And then serve it all with homemade tomato sauce. “I get tired of all the seeded vegetables of summer like corn, tomatoes and cucumbers. I’m glad when the season changes and we transition into greens.”

Paul Albrecht’s Spaghetti Squash Frittata

Chef Paul Albrecht is well known to Atlanta restaurant goers, having opened Pano and Paul’s Restaurant in 1979 and creating one of Atlanta’s first true destination restaurants. Albrecht now has two Atlanta restaurants, Paul’s in the Peachtree Hills neighborhood of Atlanta and Social Vinings. He’s also opening a new restaurant in Augusta, Bodega Ultima, inspired by the tapas restaurants of the Basque region of Spain. He created this recipe for a demonstration at the Morningside Farmers Market. It will be featured on the brunch menu of his new restaurant as a tribute to the hearty simplicity of Spanish eating.

1 spaghetti squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup diced red bell pepper

1/2 cup diced green pepper

1 small jalapeno, seeds removed, minced

3 eggs

1 cup ciliegine (cherry-size balls of mozzarella)

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon chopped chives

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash squash and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds. Rub 1 tablespoon olive oil over cut side of squash and sprinkle with salt. Arrange squash cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes or until squash is tender. Remove from oven and allow to rest until cool enough to handle. Leave oven on. Using a fork, scrape flesh into a large bowl. Set flesh aside to cool.

While squash is cooling, in a large skillet, heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, mushrooms, red pepper, green pepper and jalapeno and cook until all vegetables are tender and mushrooms have rendered their liquid, about 10 minutes. Add vegetable mixture to spaghetti squash and toss to combine. Stir in eggs and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Move squash mixture to a 10-inch oven-proof skillet or two six-inch oven-proof skillets. Top with ciliegine. Bake 15 minutes for ramekins or 25 minutes for skillet or until eggs are cooked through.

While frittata is baking, in a small bowl, stir together sour cream, cumin, cilantro and chives. Garnish frittata with herb-sour cream mixture and serve immediately. Serves: 6

Per serving: 240 calories (percent of calories from fat, 68), 9 grams protein, 11 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 19 grams fat (7 grams saturated), 131 milligrams cholesterol, 140 milligrams sodium.