Grow Your Own Magazine

Thinking ahead for next year, thought I get the ball rolling on the variety of squashes. I was at Sainsbury recently and noticed a good mix of winter squash; Crown Prince, Harlequin, Acorn Green, Red Kuri etc and although they were dear at £1.99 each (some of them only marginally bigger than a tennis ball) I had wondered if it was still worth buying for the seeds as you get the chance to try out the fruit too (helping to decide if that's for you). I gather that I can always check on seed websites if any of them are
F1 hybrid. However Crown Prince is F1 in one website and not F1 in another
Basically I'd be interested to know

squash variety you've grown (including from seeds of bought veg)
squash variety you've eaten (what's it like) but not grown yet
their storage quality if possible

Thanks.

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Food for Free

My favourite is Butternut. Daughter grew loads last year, but mine didn't do well this year - 1 fruit only. Mind you the courgettes were c**p too, and I'm usually giving them away. Basically, try the supermarket ones and if you like them have a go at growing them yourself. Good luck.

Hello Veg4681,

The only squash I've grown is Red Kuri (thanks Momol for the identification) and I "inherited" them from the previous owner - they just started to grow and in my ignorance (thought they were potatoes ) I tended them and ended up with loads. They kept all year in my dry, light and frost free workshop and I used the last of the 2006 batch in September 2007!

If you look at my avatar you'll see a couple of the surprise ones from last year. I kept some seeds and grew them deliberately this year. I have also kept some seeds from this year's batch - keep your eye on the seed swap

They are quite small, the largest being the size of a childs football but they taste fantastic (imho). I have eaten them raw and cooked. They are very tasty and a bit "nutty", the fruit is quite dense and, I am told makes a good substitutute for butternut squash.

I can tell you too, they do make a cracking pumpkin and sweetcorn soup .

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A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! (Thomas Edward Brown)

Yes Rustylady, I gather that Butternut is the most popular among all other squash and it's the only one I've ever eaten and really like. But I do wonder if I'm missing out on other interesting shape & size of squashes (apart from going crazy over variety chasing ). I fancy the look of butternut called Barbara F1 that's mostly fleshy bits than seeds.

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Food for Free

Not personally, you understand. I make the soup, the pumpkin just goes in it.

Thought I'd get that in before some other smart Alec Grape does

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A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! (Thomas Edward Brown)

Easy done!

Oh oh! pleeeeeeeeease!!

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sat 15/11/2008......there's gold in them thar...compost bins!......

I want to confirm what Scarey 55 said, Red Kuri is tasty and easy growing,it is a recommended winter squash ( me think). Mine produce 13 squashes from 3 vines ( lost 4 due to the slugs !)...go for it Hazel & Veg 4681 .
I grew my Red Kuri for the 2nd year now, the taste is not easily beaten. The Yokohama, taste not bad, the texture is far smoother but since it need such long growing time and space, I will not nominate him.

My Pomme D'or is very cute, the biggest are the size of grape fruit and some smaller ones, harvested over 40 of them in total. Taste wise is not really that special but Ok. It is just so cute and easy to grow.

Happy squashing,

Momol

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

Do try Crown prince, only note of caution is size, in a normal year, they are pretty big, have a look at my 2006 squash harvest on my blog.

Superb flavour, cut a plug round the stalk, prise it out, scoop out the seeds and string, put the plug back in minus stalk, place plug side down on roasting tray and roast till a carving fork goes in easily.
The inside steams, the upside down is to stop warm water preventing the base from cooking, allows water to get out.
Use what you can with your roast meat & other veg.
scoop out the rest of the cooked flesh, pop it in the fridge and use on a subsequent day as a soup ingredient.

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Thanks Peter, I checked out your crown prince pic in your blog and you're right, they're massive but the one in Sainsbury was a lot smaller, thinking that was the normal size. How many CR squash could you realistically get from a plant? I gather you can save seeds from the squash, not F1 hybrid I mean.

Also thanks Scarey55 & Momol for telling me a little more about Red Kuri, a serious contender.

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Food for Free

Last year I grew Harlequin which were quite successful (looked lovely). Tasted nice but not as good as Butternut. This year I grew two varieties of Butternut: Cobnut (lovely neat pear-shaped fruits and Metro (very prolific - must have got at least fifteen fruits off one plant. I got about 10 squashes off 2 Cobnuts). Based on my experience this year I would certainly recommend Metro.

Thanks for reporting on Harlequin (had my heart set on this just on looks i.e. Sweet Dumpling type) but disappointed to hear that it's not that tasty or comparable to butternut. I checked that Cobnut and Metro are F1 but convenient smaller size than normal sized butternut.

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Food for Free

CP, up to five of reasonable size.
I think I had between five and twelve plants for that blogged harvest.

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Always thank people who have helped you immediately, as they may not be around to thank later.
Visit my blog at http://podsplot.blogspot.com/
I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/

After checking out various sites, reckon cheapest option is with http://moreveg.net - Home as seeds are only 50p per squash variety. Reckon I can afford any loss if things don't work out. Wondered if anybody has tried any of these (or from this site), would love to hear.
Black Futsu
Buttercup
Cornell Bush Delicata - are delicata nice to eat?
Bon Bon F1 or Acorn F1 (optional as they're F1)

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Food for Free

Hello veg4681,

Not used the site before but it seemed fairly cheap so I ordered some bits!

Danny

Hi Veg4681,

The buttercup is very yummy, eat it before. It is somehow smooth buttery texture, slighly dry and has sweet taste. Very suitable for baking, soup, tempura, mash, steam or even in sweet desert. I haven't grown any buttercup, planning to.
have no idea about the seeds company, wait for other grapes respons and see what happen.

All the best,
Momol

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

we grow carnval squash this year very nice and still have 2 in the back yard storing well
going to grow more next year we roast them

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Some things in their natural state have the most VIVID colors
Dobby

Thanks Dobby. Was it easy to grow and the harvest, roughly how many squashes did you get per plant? I know some of you got the seeds free but I thought I heard somewhere that not many had success with the harvest so were you one of the lucky few?

Also isn't carnival squash a smaller sized variety and similar looking with Sweet Dumpling, Harlequin, Celebration, Festival etc with that lovely stripey pattern on them. I wonder if all these more or less taste the same.

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Food for Free

Hi veg4681
yes it was a bad year for squash and pumpking,
we only got 4 per plant very easy to grow we starte them of in pots like the pumpkin
then transferd them to the plot, they are small green and are heart shaped in cross section ?? hard to explain I am drying the seeds for next year
the butter nut we got nothing out of 5 plants

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Some things in their natural state have the most VIVID colors
Dobby

I could go into boast mode and tell you about my wonderful Butternut squash but would instead mention that I started a thread earlier in the year to try to find out what type were sold in sainsbury's.
Didn't find out but there were a number of leads.
I will look at the recommended varieties and your seedsman Veggi

Phreddy

I grew Anna Swartz Hubbard and Galeuse d'Eysines last year, both from seed from Realseeds.co.uk

I really liked Galeuse d'Eysines, very tasty smooth texture with no hint of bitterness with the only downside being it does not store too well. But it makes great soup for the freezer

Anna Swartz was OK, but a little bitter - perhaps I picked it too early

Had 100% success on germination for both, planting in pots inside and then transplanting at the three leaf stage

VF

So far the best site I've seen with the widest choice of squashes (with pictures) is a German one Samen von Uncle Bob - Bobby-Seeds Onlineshop, thanks to Momol. They do a good selection of smaller sized butternut.

Thanks VF for the info, any info is useful as some of us squash fans are trying to work out which are the ones worth growing.

Real Seeds no longer sells Galeuse d'Eysines, maybe dropped due to poor storage quality.

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Food for Free