Courge musquée

This variety of winter squash is called "muscade." It will look like a tan-colored pumpkin when mature, kind of the same color as a butternut squash, another related variety. Like the rouge vif d'Etampes, I've grown these before. We should have a nice pumpkin patch this fall. And a big job of processing the flesh for the freezer.

This one's got a lot of growing to do!

I had a good market day on Saturday, bringing home a melon, some radishes, and some tomatoes. I also stopped into a charcuterie in town for some jambon cru (dry-cured ham) to eat with the melon. I'm not sure where in France the ham came from, but the sign at the shop said jambon sec (dried ham) and I read that's a specialty of the Ardennes region of France. We ate half the melon and ham as our appetizer yesterday and it was delicious. We lucked out with a good melon again.

If you've not been to France in the summer, you might not be familiar with the typical pairing of cured ham and Cavaillon or Charentais melons. The sweet flavor of the melon, similar to the North American cantaloupe, goes very well with the saltiness of the ham. I know that dry-cured ham is made all over Europe, especially in Italy (prosciutto, Parma), Spain (Serrano), and Portugal as well as France (Bayonne).