Well, first an update. It’s been quiet on greatsquash.com. If you’ve read about me, you know I started this site as a project to keep my life hoppin’ and productive during unemployment. And during a pandemic.
This Spring I got a job. And at that point, I slowed down my pace of adding new content to this site. I didn’t stop gardening at all though. And because I love squash, especially winter squash, I always dedicate quite a bit of garden space to growing it. Here’s a photo of some of that harvest.
Okay, what do we have here?
On the left, the beauty of a winter squash with the acorn shape, deep ridges, and cream/orange/green coloration is a variety called ‘Jester,” a hybrid from Johnny’s seeds. It is similar in flavor to delicata or carnival squash, which are similar varieties though shaped differently.
The cut squash, and the two roundish dark green ones underneath it, are kabocha squashes. I got this seed from the Plant Good Seed Company in California.
In the center, the big beauty is a calabaza de castilla. This is a C. moschata type (butternut family) winter squash. The seed came from Kitazawa Seed Company. Like a lot of moschatas, this variety may need an even longer and hotter summer than we can offer. The flavor is good, and the yield is certainly bountiful, but a waltham butternut tastes better in this climate.
On the top right, the bright orange one is a volunteer that grew next to the compost pile. This happens a lot with winter squash. This one tasted like nothing at all. Not an uncommon result with these volunteers, so I wouldn’t put too much hope in them. It’s actually safest to eat them when they’re small and soft, like summer squash. Most squashes taste good that way (if zucchini tastes good to you in the first place).