How many Courgettes, Squashes and Cucumbers have you grown & picked :)

[nellie-m]

Can you see why I didn't count them yet Each box contains the harvest of one single plant. Pantry is full of boxes!

[veggiechicken]

Wow, Nellie! You're bonkers about squashes too
What variety are they?

[nellie-m]

Yellow Mandan (I posted a little earlier about them so I thought I'd add those pics). The reason I have so many is I want to help preserve the variety, and as I can only grow around twenty I grew a second batch this year to reach minimum population size which should be at least forty (I grew 25 plants but had to cull five because of untypical colour).

All I need to send back to the archive is about one pint of seeds, with a few of each plant. But even if that's not a lot I still have to grow all those plants – and eat all those squashes. Heroic, isn't it?

So yes, I'm bonkers about heirloom varieties

[veggiechicken]

They look very productive! Might try those myself next year. I "think" I know where there are some seeds

[Guest]

Thanks for the pics Nellie they are amazing. You could use one for a guess how many there are competition So guess you will be mostly eating yellow Mandan squash

[Small pumpkin]

They are fantastic!
I'd love the space to grow that many squash plants. I may have to find it! Got a little carried away with squash seed purchases for next year .
Are they multi talented in the kitchen ( roast, soup, chutneys, everything else ) ?

[nellie-m]

Thanks for all your kind comments! They're actually the only thing I can grow in that part of the field - to say the ground is very stony would be an understatement. I have to dig every plant hole with my bare hands and fill it with some soil and compost. I cover the ground with this plastic sheet because I really cannot do any weeding there, no spade or fork will go deeper than an inch. After I take the sheet away I sow some phacelia as green manure and leave it to flower for a year, and then the sheet goes on again.

I love the Mandan because it doesn't seem to mind this poor soil, with the sheet I don't need to water except in really long periods of drought, and I find it is very productive once it gets really going. The fruits are small so which is good for a small household and store well into winter. It's a pepo, not a maxima, so its texture is not exactly like for example a Red Kuri - a soup is maybe a little less creamy although taste is just fine.

I've used it in stir fries, baked in the oven, as soup... pretty much everything. And unripe fruits in salads (nicer than courgettes: crispy and more flavour). And what's best, even though it's a pepo the skin doesn't need to be removed, it softens during cooking similar to a Kuri. Very unlike a ripe courgette that you can only split open with an axe

[happyhumph]

2 more courgettes so 131 courgettes & 1 more turks turban so 7. Looking forward to spaghetti squash - have some monsters ripening!

grand total 101 cucs, 135 courgettes (zephyr), 13 turks turban and 7 spaghetti squash. Happy with the amount of courgettes but think there's room for more squash somewhere (I'll squash them in somehow )

[Lumpy]

I've got 1 skinny butternut still living on the window ledge do you want it to add to your amazing collection?