HANNAFORD CAREER CENTER Culinary Instructor Jill Huizenga has several ways she likes to use seasonal produce during the fall months. Her recommendations include preparing warm dishes like soups and stews and preserving in-season goods to enjoy later on.
Independent photo/Marin Howell

ADDISON COUNTY — There’s a lot to love about fall in Addison County — vibrant foliage, agreeable temperatures and, of course, a wide variety of locally grown produce waiting to be enjoyed.

From apples and arugula to pumpkins and parsnips, farms and orchards around the county produce an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the fall, which can make for tasty snacks on their own or key ingredients in hearty recipes to whip up throughout the season.

Wondering what produce you can find locally this season and how to use it? Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center Culinary Instructor Jill Huizenga offered some fall cooking tips for beginner and seasoned chefs alike.

When it comes to local produce, Huizenga listed several seasonal crops she likes to incorporate into dishes during the fall.

“What comes to mind first would be golden raspberries. Those are a fall fruit that I love,” she said. “Cabbage, heirloom tomatoes, stone fruits are just finishing up … carrots, beets, so many things.”

Some of that produce makes its way into lessons with Huizenga’s students, who run the Glass Onion Eatery at the Career Center in Middlebury and cater lunches for the Age Well community.

Those catered meals offer Huizenga and her students an opportunity to get creative and plan dishes around a theme or season. Last year, they prepared an Italian meal with seafood pasta and Arancini, deep fried risotto balls that Huizenga noted could incorporate in-season produce like corn and butternut squash.

Other fall recipes she and her students have prepared often include pumpkin, such as pumpkin carrot apple ginger muffins.

“Those were really fun and seasonal,” she recalled.

And autumn is a time when everyone enjoys feeling the kitchen heat up when the oven is going.

Huizenga herself enjoys baking breads and other treats as temperatures cool down in the fall.

“It’s a nice seasonal activity,” she said. “When it gets cooler out and I want my oven on and nice warm bread, that kind of stuff makes me happy.”

Other warm dishes Huizenga likes to make in the fall include stews and soups.

“Roasted butternut squash is my favorite; a pureed soup with a nice cream,” she said. “It’s a good time of year to roast over fire, having charbroiled some of those heartier vegetables is really nice.”

Huizenga said she also likes to dress up dishes with dried fruits like cranberries and pepitas, a type of pumpkin seed that doesn’t have a hull.

The local chef finds inspiration for recipes in a few different places. When looking for cooking ideas, she recommends checking out Allrecipes and Bon Appetit magazines, as well as The New York Times cooking section.

Wherever she finds inspiration for dishes, Huizenga said she tries to keep it simple.

“If the produce is fresh and local and you’re treating it kindly, it can only taste good,” she said.

KEEPING FALL FOODS LONGER

In addition to cooking, Huizenga noted some other ways she’s looking to use produce throughout the season, such as through preserving.

“Fall is a huge time to preserve, so I’m thinking more about how to preserve things and how to hold them over for the winter so I can continue to eat those things,” she said.

For those new to preserving, Huizenga suggests storing goods in a way that you’ll want to eat them later on.

“Be curious about it,” she said.  “It’s so easy to just chop it and freeze it, but are you really going to use it if you do that or is there a better option?”

For example, try cooking a favorite dish using in-season produce to enjoy in the coming months.   

“I made a ton of baba ghanoush with all the eggplants and some nice roasted garlic in it and froze it,” Huizenga recalled. “(It’s) making things and then freezing how you would eat them and knowing even how to portion it in ways that you’re going to pull it out and eat it.”

Huizenga also plans to explore fermentation this season, such as by using produce to make kimchi, a traditional Korean side dish made with fermented cabbage and other vegetables.

“My new curiosities are around fermenting and preserving that way,” she said. “That’s kind of my new journey.”

What else is Huizenga looking forward to making this fall?

“I’m looking to do some more smoked meat stuff this year, and hopefully trying to source the meat locally, too,” she said. “Also, apples and pies. I’m looking to do pies again for Thanksgiving.”

Click here to read some recipes for delicious fall soups.