Pumpkin festival and butternut bruschetta

We headed to a pumpkin festival this weekend. I have to admit that on the way there I had a ‘wow, this is what my Saturdays are now about’ moment. But it turned out to be a really really lovely afternoon. It was on the Billesberger farm and as much as I was fearing a single stall with a couple of pumpkin there was tons on offer.

They had set up one of the barns as a farmers market and were selling homegrown seasonal vegetables as well as fresh eggs and bread. There was locally made tofu, elderflower syrups, local beer and pumpkin chutney. The farm also grows spelt and produce their own spelt pasta which was being cooked and tossed with pumpkin in an asian ginger sauce by a chef.

There was pumpkin cake (good!) and apple layer cake (so very good) as well as Emilio coffee (yes please!). They had pumpkins for sale to take home or for you to sit and carve with the family. Most of it was lost on the baby but she loved the goats and the inquisitive farm dog and hanging out on the grass watching the world go by, stealing pieces of pumpkin.

We brought home lots of goodies and today I made a really good butternut bruschetta. Its nothing fancy, just the cumulation of really good produce. Local garlic, local butternut, roasted and then mashed onto dark bread and topped with some crumbly goats cheese. YUM!

Ingredients (serves 4)
Half a butternut squash peeled and cubed
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 sprigs sage
Pinch dried chilli
1 clove garlic
4 slices good bread
40g crumbly goats or sheep cheese

Method
Preheat your oven to 180C
Place the squash into a roasting dish and coat with the olive oil
Sprinkle over the chilli and add in the sage and the garlic
Roast for 25mins or until soft
Once roasted, rub the bread slices with the garlic
Mash the butternut squash in a large bowl
Spread generously onto the bread and top with a sprinkle of cheese
Season well and enjoy