When we made our own baby food for my daughter I planted extra butternut and acorn squash plants. I can't remember how many plants but I know we had plenty of it. When it was time we took the squash chopped them up (removing the skins I found was easier once cubed up as it was one more cut rather than peeling), steam till fairly soft, then puried them. If the texture wasn't where we wanted it we'd add the water from the bottom of the steam pot so we were not losing any nutrients either. Froze it in ice cube trays from the dollar (got 4 trays for a dollar) store then once they'd set up we popped them out and put it in gallon sized ziplock bags and labeled. Each cube was 1oz. so we knew exactly how much she ate at a sitting. Worked out great. It was not something we looked forward to doing because the prep work was no joke but when you do a batch of 20 squash at a time you learn how to do it pretty quickly.
We paired it with a number of other foods like chicken that we roasted, apples (which went through the same process), to name a few off the top of my head Once made it was super easy we'd warm them up, and serve. Or if travelling we'd put them in a cooler lunch pack and take them with us.
It made a big difference for us. Not only did my daughter eat food that we knew was good for her and not processed into the ground but it also saved us a TON of money, and made the transition to table food very easy since all that changed was the texture. We plan on doing this again when its time. It was well worth it looking back on it.
edited for spelling
What a perfect way to feed a child! Good for you. I made my own baby food, but I lived in a tiny apartment and couldn't "grow my own"!
