Squash Harvest 2010

It was another good squash year.....which makes me smile, because Winter squash is one of our favorite vegetables around here!

This season's harvest, all lined up in their beautiful colors. These were picked on October 17th....we received our first frost later that night.

Squash posing in front of Steve's garden......with the beautiful backdrop of Cut and Come Again Zinnias in the background. This garden space needed a little something to beautify it, so I made the little bark area, surrounded by smooth river rocks and added the cobalt blue birdbath and pots. I was very pleased with it, except that by the time this photo was taken the petunias in the pots were pretty well exhausted, so next year I will have something waiting in the wings to pop into the blue pots....maybe some fall asters?

Sweet Meat Squash, on the left, are so pretty in their bluish green hues. It is one of our all time favorites for it's sweet, dry, orange flesh. The orange squash, on the right, is called Sunshine, the only hybrid I grow. It is also a favorite, especially for it's earliness. If I pick the fruits early enough, I can get two crops from this variety.

Bumpy and warted Marina de Chioggia. I grew these for the first time last year, and found that they improve in storage, so we will eat them last!

This odd looking squash is called Galeux D'eysines. I grew these at the request of my friend Catherine who supplied the seeds. The days to maturity is 105, and her growing season is too short for them to mature in her area. Does this make me a surrogate gardener? :-)

This is the catalog description from Territorial Seeds: " An elegant French heirloom with an appropriately elegant sounding name. Magnifique! This stunning squash has beautiful salmon-peach colored skin covered with peanut shell-like warts caused by sugar in the skin. Traditionally used in France for soups and sauces, when cooked, the sweet orange flesh is as smooth as velvet. Each flattened squash weighs 10-15 pounds and can store for up to 6 months. Definitely a show stopper in the garden or on the table. " I might add that the vines are very prolific and outgrew my garden....until the deer pruned them off for me.

Two different types of Butternut squash, to the right in the photo above, rounded out the line-up for this year. We love them for the sweet, smooth, dry flesh.... and because one is just the right size to pop in the oven for the two of us.

While pulling up squash vines, I found this adorable little nest of Quail eggs, hidden beneath the vines. We have lots of Quail here, and they are like pets. We love watching them peck around with their cute little top feathers bobbing!

Garden Harvest

I thought I should share this photo to prove that, indeed, I do have a garden this year and it is producing....in spite of my infrequent posts to this blog! ;-)




I gathered this bounty from the garden last week, in my trusty stainless steel bowl: Cucumbers, Green Beans, Bell peppers and Mini Peppers, Summer Squash, Dill and several varieties of Tomatoes. In the background are two varieties of Rudbeckias I started early from seed this year....Cherry Brandy on the left (which I love for it's deep red color and darker centers) and Denver Daisy on the right. (Park Seed Co.)

Because of our long cool Spring, the garden is quite a bit later than usual, and now we have been experiencing an early fall. I'm not ready to say good-bye to summer.... but alas, it is drawing to a close. I am already making plans for next year's garden. That is the beauty of the garden....it is an ever changing palette for the creative ideas of the gardener. :-)

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The first gatherings of the garden in May of salads, radishes and herbs made me feel like a mother about her baby - how could anything so beautiful be mine? And this emotion of wonder filled me for each vegetable as it was gathered every year. There is nothing that is comparable to it, as satisfactory or as thrilling, as gathering the vegetables one has grown.

~ Alice B. Toklas

Heirloom Squash Update

In my previous post, Squash Roundup I shared about growing two new heirloom squashes this year. At the time I made the post, we had yet to taste test these two varieties, and I promised to update you after we did.....so here goes!

The two varieties are Marina di Chioggia (green, on the left) and Australian Butter Squash. ( pale orange, on the right) I like how they looked here....displayed in the natural light near a window.

Marina di Chioggia, up close and personal. This is a good sized squash, and nice looking too, with it's dark green warty surface, along with a turban shaped bottom. Taste? In a word, disappointing. Lacked the sweetness we like and the texture was moist and fibrous.

Australian Butter Squash. The description of this squash in the seed catalog had my mouth watering! "Sweet, dense, deep orange flesh that is dry with a very small seed cavity. When roasted, it's custardy, silky-smooth texture is scrumptious instead of or alongside potatoes with roasted meat and fowl or in a melange of roasted root vegetables sparked with herbed olive oil, balsamic vinegar and citrus zest." Whew! It is a beauty with it's lovely pale buff-orange color and pumpkin shape. This was my largest...11 inches in diameter, and weighing in at almost 10 lbs! But in spite of it's physical virtues, the real test comes down to TASTE. Again.... a disappointment. :-( We like our squash sweet with smooth, dry flesh (which the catalog claimed) but found it not sweet enough, too moist, and not at all smooth textured.

Perhaps these two varieties will develop more flavor and dryness in storage. (one can hope?) But the bottom line is that they will not be making a repeat appearance in our garden next year. We will stick with our all time favorites: Sunshine, Butternut, Buttercup, and Sweet Meat. These have never disappointed, and are always a delicious treat!


UPDATE!! January 20, 2009 - After a couple months in storage, the flavor and texture of both of these squashes improved immensely! The texture is smoother and drier, and the the sweetness also developed, especially so in the Marina di Chioggia. So in all fairness, I must say that both turned out to be great tasting squash after all....they just needed a little more time to mature. They will probably make it back on the roster for next year! A good plan would be to eat the other varieties first, and save these for last.


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'Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure."


George E. Woodberry

Squash Round Up

I was pleased with the squash harvest this year! Anyone who has grown squash knows what a space hog it can be, and this has presented a problem in our moderately sized kitchen garden. So 2 years ago we added three squash rings at the edge of the raised bed garden where the vines can roam, and this spring we added a 15 x 30 foot square garden, dedicated mostly to winter and summer squash, with one row of tomatoes and a row of sunflowers along the back edge. (This has been dubbed 'Steve's Garden', since dear husband did most of the work in it, while I was laid up during the better part of the spring and summer with a frozen shoulder.)



Above photo showcasing this year's harvest. From the top: Dark green Marina de Chioggia (heirloom), Butternut (the largest one near bottom was 12 inches long!), Blue-green Sweetmeat, Orange Sunshine (hybrid), 2 Green Buttercup (only one vine of these came up), Pale orange Australian Butter Squash (heirloom - the largest of these was 10 inches in diameter.)

Buttercup, Butternut, Sweet Meat, and Sunshine varieties are favorites from years past. All have delicious sweet, dry flesh. It was our first year to grow the two heirloom varieties, and we have yet to cook one of them for a taste test.

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[This quote dedicated to my Dad, a North Dakota farmer.
Thank you, Dad.... for your example!]



"Our deep respect for the land and its harvest is the legacy of generations of farmers who put food on our tables, preserved our landscape, and inspired us with a powerful work ethic."

James H. Douglas

Squash Update

A while back I did a post on a new squash I am growing this year called Sunshine. I have been surprised at how vigorous the vine is and how many nice sized fruit is it bearing.

They are so pretty in their bright orange coats....they remind me of pumpkins!

Here are a couple of immature Butternut squash. They seem to be developing fruit rather late this year, so I hope they will ripen before frost. They are pretty, too, at this stage...with their lovely medium and light green stripes.

Sunshine Squash

The squash blossoms are really coming on! This variety is new for me this year and is called 'Sunshine.' It is named so for the orange color of the fruit, but the name seems fitting for the sunny yellow blossoms, as well.

How could I resist with this catalog description?

"Vibrant orange-red color, sweet, nutty, creamy, absolutely smooth flesh. Received the prestigious All-American award for 2004. Short 6-8 ft. vines produce an abundance of 3 to 4 pound kabocha type fruits. The sweet, richly flavored flesh is impeccably refined."

Well now, I ask you.....who wouldn't want their squash to be "impeccably refined" ?!

This cute little baby squash with the dried blossom still attached isn't too refined yet. He sort of looks like he is having a "bad hair day." :-)

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I look forward to the squash harvest each fall, as it is one of my favorite garden vegetables!