From mid-fall and through the end of the season, a variety of winter squash will be in your share. Unlike summer squash, these varieties have thicker skins to help them store longer, and starchy flesh that is tasty when cooked. The Delicata in particular has relatively thin skin and a creamy and nutty flavor making is great for baking and steaming.
Delicata is unique among winter squash in many respects. Its skin is thin enough to eat…just wash off the outside before cooking, cut the squash into slices ¼ inch thick, and sauté them in butter for a few minutes; add them to a pasta or curry, or use as a pizza topping. Or simply slice in rounds, coat with olive oil and salt and bake in the oven until tender at 400 degrees. You can also save and wash the seeds and roast or dry them for eating (like pumpkin seeds).
Delicata should keep for several weeks in a cool and dry part of the kitchen away from direct sunlight, although due to its thinner skin is known to not keep for quite as long as all the other thicker skinned winter squashes. Store squashes that have been cut open in the refrigerator for several days.
Winter squash is high in starch and fiber, vitamin A, niacin, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and beta carotene.
Squash was first grown for its edible seeds by Native Americans 10,000 years ago. After five thousand years of cultivation the fruit became edible, and from there the many different types of squash began to emerge. The first European explorers found an immense variety of squash grown in different areas by different tribes and empires, and called it "squash" as an abbreviation of a much longer Indian name. All squash are cucurbits, in the same family as cucumbers, melons and gourds.