Blind Pig reader Bill Dotson may have solved my winter squash mystery. Bill said it looked like an orange cushaw and after googling around I believe he is right.
If it is an orange cushaw the yellowish top color should continue to spread down to the bottom and start to turn more of an orange color as it does.
Easy to see how the company I purchased from could mix up the seeds.
We love growing winter squash. The main reason is we love to eat them. They are delicious diced and roasted or pan fried. We also love them in desserts like pies and breads. And if that wasn’t enough they make tasty soups and stews.
One the biggest draws to growing winter squash for us is the amount of food that one squash contains. Yes they can be large and hard to deal with, but it’s amazing how much food is in one pumpkin, cushaw, or any other variety as long as they do well.
There’s been a couple of years we grew miniature butternut squash when the plants didn’t do as good as we’d hoped. There wasn’t much food in one of them.
The other thing I love about winter squash is the way they can be stored.
You can certainly chop or cook them and put them in the freezer. And some folks can them or make butters. But my favorite way to put them up is to set them around my kitchen walls. Putting up doesn’t get much easier than that.
After the plant dies back in the garden we leave the winter squash there for a week or sometimes longer. Then we move them to our front porch and leave them till true cold weather arrives. That gives them time to cure and develop a thicker skin.
Once the cold wind blows into the holler for good I move them all to my kitchen and set them in various places around the walls until the day I decide to cook one.
I keep an eye on them and if any start to show signs of decay I cook them quickly or process them and put them in the freezer.
A couple of times when our winter squash produced a bumper crop I had some last all the way till the next planting season.
Last night’s video: The Family History and Stories of Opal Corn Myers 32.
Tipper
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Tipper, I have this same thing on one of mine! I have 3 vines that each have 2 cushaws, all from the same seed, and just one cushaw is yellow like this. The vine its on had started up a bean trellis, and the yellow one is on that and the others on the ground, so I thought maybe the sun bleached it or something like that lol! I’m glad I saw this post and that someone found an explanation. Now I want to save some seeds from it and see what color I get next year
I can’t wait to see how your winter squash changes colors and to hear from you how it tastes. My pumpkin patch is still blooming like crazy and something is still clipping the blooms right off. I think we may get four pumpkins but that is great to me. Have a super day everyone.
So glad the mystery of your squash has been identified. I love winter squash, in particular the Butternut but my very favorite is the Hubbard, which is hard to find here in the south. The Hubbard gets quite large, but can process for later and it’s well worth it too!
It’s good to know the mystery squash is kinda/sorta/possibly solved. 🙂 The proof will be ‘in the pudding’ as an old saying goes, when it matures and you cut into it. Keep us posted Tipper!
I have same thing going on in my winter squash supposed to be butternut squash I have about half that are normal shaped and half that look like a fat bell but they are turning normal color now.
Looking forward to finding out exactly what kind of squash you have grown. Since I live in Florida, I just started some bush green beans and man they are growing fast in this heat!
Buttercup is my absolutely favorite variety of winter squash (not butternut, buttercup). They are so good! Such a deep orange color and very delicious flavor. I usually roast all my winter squash and out the puréed squash in freezer bags. Not only is it a delicious standalone side, I add a bag of frozen squash to many soups I make. It’s especially delicious in a big pot of garden veggie soup! It thickens the broth ever so slightly and adds wonderful flavor. People always comment on the tastiness of the broth when I bring them soup and I think the squash is the reason!
I’ve always bought winter squash varieties to eat. This year a volunteer came up near my compost bin and I wasn’t sure what it was. Watching your channel, I recognized the large leaves to be that of a squash. It turns out to be an Acorn Squash! I have (2) that are about the size of when I buy them. It also has been the best plant in my pitiful little garden. I garden mostly for the fun of watching seeds grow and feeling insects and birds, but an occasional harvest of even one item brings me joy.
Tipper–One other way to approach “keeping” winter squash, and it has the double appeal of reduced space usage and long-term preservation, is to dry the flesh. I know you have a dehydrator, so the next time you have a bumper crop, give it a try.
Yes, it’s a cushaw. So perdy! We grow these and in bad years we purchase them locally grown. So good for so many things. Cheese pumpkins (some call them cow pumpkins) are really good and versatile too. I love all winter squash. So good!
I hope it is an orange cushaw, and I hope you will keep us posted as it changes colors. That willbe so pretty! I have yet to eat cushaw. Maybe I will try to grow some next year. From what BP&A readers say, it sure sounds delicious!❤️
Happy to see the winter squash mystery may have been solved.
I don’t remember my family growing winter squash when we had our large gardens. We didn’t even grow pumpkins. I do remember growing butternut squash one year and Mother making pies similar to sweet potato pies with them. My childhood memory thinks they were just about as good as sweet potato pies. We would sit out 500-1,000 sweet potato plants each year, sell some of them, and eat the rest during the fall and winter months. Seemed like Daddy had a special knack for making sweet potato pies, his pies would be extra good.
My uncle was a county agriculture agent and back in the 60’s when we was planting our sweet potatoes, he told Daddy to add 20 mule team borax to the 5-10-10 fertilizer we used. Triple 10 had more nitrogen and would probably just make more vines. I don’t know the reason for doing this.
My Grandma grew cushaws. As I recall they were huge (to me as a child anyway) and we’re gray-green. I did like to eat them but I must have been in a minority. I don’t think many people even know the word cushaw much less would know one if they saw it. I hope I’m wrong. Makes me think of the Jeff Foxworthy routine ” You Might Be ….. If”. I for one could laugh if he did one about us as long as it was kind, as I think he would be. Anyway, I’m thinking Tipper you got a not-so-secret delight in having a mystery plant that is an old friend in different clothes. I believe I know about you that you love adding to your garden (make that ecology) know-how. I much resemble that myself.
I’m glad Bill knew what it was and your research confirmed it. I’ve never grown cushaws, so I’d have no idea if it was one or not. I have grown summer squash, zucchini and pumpkins. Squash and zucchini did very well most the years I grew them, but nobody in my family likes them except me, so I stopped. I’m sure my neighbors were disappointed since I gave most of both squash harvest to them. I grew pumpkins one time and they were the small pie kind, but they didn’t do well and they took up a lot of space, so I’ve not grown them anymore either. I hope your orange cushaw gets bigger and ripens more so it will be delicious in all your great recipes this winter.
We love all things winter squash and pumpkin too. My husband works for a small organic farm, and one year he was testing some seeds for native Seminole pumpkins. I was born here in Florida and never knew we had such a thing as a native pumpkin. Those things grew prolifically and took over the back yard, but they were the tastiest eating pumpkins I’ve ever had, mild and slightly sweet, perfect for baking, roasting, soup, and anything else you could think of. A friend even gave me a recipe for stuffed crockpot pumpkin filled with meatloaf. Funny though, you couldn’t guess the shapes of them. Some turned out classic pumpkin shaped while others turned out like a gourd. Didn’t make any difference to the flavor.