Pumpkins and Squash

These are the pumpkins we are growing this year! They are Halloween pumpkins but we are also growing some squash for eating. It's the Okanagan where everything grows well! I haven't tried growing large, winter squash in the far north yet, but I intend to soon with the help of a greenhouse.

These are our butternut squash plants, Growing fast and healthy with many blooms. Butternut squash makes great soup! We will revisit these squash when they are ready to eat in the fall with soup recipes.

These are our sweet dumpling squash plants. As the name implies, sweet dumpling squash is very sweet. They are tiny apple sized squash that are easy to fill and bake for one person. All of our squash plants are so green and healthy!

We are also growing some Hopi Black squash. It's an old rare heirloom once grown by the Hopi natives. It has a great sweet flavour and is darker with more beta carotene. It has a lovely flavour, a lot of meat and a smaller seed cavity, making it good for baking and making into pies.

We have one more type of squash growing in our garden. It's a cushaw or mixta variety, usually grown only in the deep south but we are trying it here. We only have the one plant but it's doing very well. It's large, green and healthy!

We will have all of these squash seeds for sale this winter! (Provided they produce fruit that matures and the seeds get saved properly, of course.)

We plan to sell the Halloween pumpkins in the fall and to roast the seeds. The squash seeds can also be roasted and eaten in the same manner.

We are growing these particular varieties because most of them do not cross with the others, being from different squash families (there are 4 families of squash). The seeds will be pure and we can use them to grow the same ones next year, except for the pumpkins and sweet dumpling squash. Both of these are of the c. pepo family and will be cross pollinating, so we won't be using those seeds for planting next year. We will just buy more seed next year for these varieties, if we wish to plant them again. 
 
You can also prevent them from crossing by using the tape method described here, "Preventing Cross Pollination".  It also describes simple hand pollinating which can be done to provide more squash. It's not necessary to use the tape if you are not concerned with keeping your own seed.

Squash can replace pumpkin in most recipes and many people like it better. We will post some great squash recipes when they are all ripe in the fall. 

In addition to the pumpkins and squash in our garden, we are also growing some heirloom tomatoes which you can see in some of the photos above. Unfortunately, these were planted a bit too close to the pumpkins...

The Last of the Squash

This is the last of this year's squash from the basement cold cellar. The rest has been processed for the freezer, made into pies or given away. Some of these will last much longer, even into the new year but I am going to put them all into the freezer this week.

I had that job on the agenda for today, but, well, I just didn't feel like doing that. I'll do it tomorrow. (There's always tomorrow...) I made a massive lasagna and some apple, oatmeal, maple muffins today, as well as other things such as playing in the field with Buck to get him some exercise (in 2.5 ft of snow) and blowing out the the driveway, so I don't feel like the time was wasted. I also made a trip to the grocery store and the Bulk Barn. The Bulk Barn is my new favouite store! I could look for half a day and spend half a fortune in there! Shopping in the bulk food store makes me want to bake.

This is a new muffin recipe so I have no idea if they will be good or not. The recipe only made eight large muffins. If they turn out well I will make more soon and post it here. They sound good with the maple syrup in them. I love maple! It's my favourite flavour! It ranks at the top with very dark chocolate and dark chocolate-raspberry combinations, so I'm sure I'll like them but I won't be the one eating most of them. Hubby will be, so, we'll see how they do. They are in the oven right now, so I don't even know if I like them yet. They sure do smell good!
Tomorrow I will bake or peel and boil these squash.

The Perfect Squash

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I like to grow squash, lots of squash. Over the past couple of years I have grown many different kinds in search of the perfect squash. Well, I think I have found it!





This is the Hopi Black squash. It's very large! I know it's not black now, but it is black when it's young, as it is in this picture.







It is as large as a big hubbard, but the skin is easier to peel and can be cut with a knife, as opposed to an axe. I have to use an axe or a hammer to cut into a hubbard squash.
The Hopi Black squash is very sweet, dense and delicious. It has a small seed cavity with a lot of meat.








The meat is a much darker orange than any squash I have seen. There's a big difference in the colour. Does this mean it has more beta carrotene? I wish I could find more information on that!


This is a very old, rare and hard to find heirloom squash. It was grown by the Hopi Indians generations ago. It produced as much cooked and finished squash for the freezer as I got from 4-5 small ambercups.

This will be the only squash I grow for our family in the future. It's very large, meaty, soft skinned, sweet, delicious and easy to grow. It does have a long growing season so I will start them early indoors, but that's fun anyway.

I may plant many different types in the big field next year for a "pic your own" squash and pumpkin field...maybe, but this will be the only one I grow for processing by us.

Cooking Squash & Making Muffins

I made squash muffins yesterday. They were a big hit!

They are best made with real cooked and mashed winter squash, either fresh or from the freezer. Just, please, don't use that canned stuff!!













First, cut open your fresh squash and scoop out the seeds and inside. Save the seeds for roasting ;-)












Cook the squash.









There are several ways this can be accomplished.


Baking: Turned squash halves upside down in a pan with a little water and baked for about 45 minutes in the oven. Let cool and scoop cooked squash out of peel.
Boiled: Peel and cut into big chunks. Bring to a boil and cook for only 10 minutes. If it cooks in the water for too long, it will be too wet. Drain well and mash. A potato masher works well for this, as does a ricer.

Or you can cook it in the microwave. I have never tried that as you can only do one piece at a time and I am usually processing many squash at once for the freezer.

When the squash is well done, mash it with a potato masher. What a beautiful bright orange this is! Lots of beta carotene!















Baking is easier but I had squash pies in the oven so I peeled and boiled this.










Squash Muffin recipe:

1 cup squash, cooked and mashed
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon mace
Raisins (optional)

Makes 1 dozen muffins.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix the wet ingredients together in a big bowl. Then mix the dry ingredients together in another bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones until well mixed. Spoon into muffin papers or a greased muffin pan. Fill quite full as they don't rise a lot. Bake at 350F for 20-23 minutes until barely starting to brown on top.

Delicious hot with real butter or at room temperature! Good in lunches too!

Winter Squash From This Year

We grew a lot of winter squash this year. We love squash pies and it's so easy to grow! This year I experimented with a few different varieties. The little orange one are our favourites so far, ambercup. They are small, easy to peel and very sweet.











The most interesting ones were the Hopi indian squash, black and pale gray. I have posted pics of these two types here because I have read folks complain that there aren't any pictures of them on the internet. I know they are rare. These are the original "Three Sisters" squash grown by the Hopi indians. Next year I will have this seed for sale on my site, in addition to a few others. I only have the "Upper Ground Sweet Potato" squash seeds for sale this year because they are the only ones I have with positive seed purity. Next year will be different. I will be growing various types of squash with insect protection and seed purity in mind.




This is the Hopi black growing.











This is the Hopi black after it is aged and ripe. That's an acorn squash next to it to show the large size. It's the only acorn squash I got this year. Just the one.










These are a couple of the Hopi pale gray. It is suppose to be a very good keeper.







The two massive squash at the back of the group in the picture at the right are the "Upper Ground Sweet Potato" squash. It's big, the size of a very large pumpkin! It is suppose to taste more like sweet potatoes than squash. It also grows well in very poor conditions, making it a good squash for our depleted field. It did very well there! I have this seed for sale in my farm store.

The colourful ones in this pile are the "Turban", also called "Turk's Cap" squash. These are a buttercup relative so I am sure they will be dense, sweet and delicious! I grew them because of their colour. I think they will be a good addition to any fall decoration. I didn't grow a lot of them this year but might be growing them for sale next year.








In the group picture behind the "Turban" squash are the four spaghetti squash we grew to try. We have never grown or eaten spaghetti squash before. We are looking at recipes now. We'll see how it goes. If we like it we will grow it again next year. If not, well, it will go the way of the butternut and Ebisu we grew previously and weren't impressed with. We have grown the big blue hubbard before, as well, and like it a lot but didn't grow it this year. I think what we have will be enough and the hubbard, while delicious, is big and hard to peel. An axe does a fair job. A knife...not so much.

These two little, dark green little ones are "Sweet Mama" squash. I only have the two and I am looking forward to trying them. Next year I will plant "Sweet Dumpling". I already have the seeds!




I have several of these. They are big blue hubbard and ambercup crosses. I didn't grow the hubbard this year but I grew it right next to the ambercup last year. Even though I hand pollinated all the flowers last year, there were still some crosses. It'll be good. Both the hubbard and ambercup are good, similar in their sweetness and density, both delicious!




Next year I will be tying both the male and female flowers with netting, I think, to ensure seed purity.
All things considered, we are very happy with this year's squash harvest! It's time to start cutting into a few ripe ones, baking them for the freezer and making a few pies!

We Have Squash!!

I love growing squash! It's so much fun and so interesting! I am a little nuts about squash like other people are about heirloom tomatoes. I know people that grow three dozen different types of tomatoes! I like to grow several different types of squash, whatever kind I 
find interesting.

The picture at the top is the acorn squash growing on the fence along the driveway. There has been a battle this summer between the acorn squash and the morning glories, to see who would take over the fence. It sure is beautiful!Most of the squash that I planted this year has done very well and there have been some surprises! This is an ambercup and blue hubbard cross, bound to be delicious with those two for parents! Who knows, maybe it will be fabulous. If I keep pollinating it back to itself for a few generations, I might have a stable new variety of maxima squash. Wouldn`t that be fun!




This is our favourite winter squash variety, ambercup. It is so sweet and delicious without being overly stringy. It`s also small and easy to peel and bake, easier than hubbard, anyway. Those giant hubbard have to be cut with the axe!





We also like buttercup. I planted very decorative buttercup squash this year. Aren't they beautiful! I have about two dozen of these growing in the squash field. These are "turban" squash, also called "Turk`s cap", and are a type of buttercup. Buttercup squash are easy to handle, sweet and delicious, and I like these for fall decorating. The only drawback I have found with the buttercup is that they don't keep as well throughout the winter in the cold cellar. The softer skin that makes them a little easier to peel and cook, also prevents them from keeping as long.



This is a Hopi black squash. The Hopi indians used to grow them in the three sisters fasion. I also planted Hopi pale gray squash, which are suppose to be very good "keepers" but I don't think they did very well. I couldn't find one out there, anyway. Perhaps when the large squash leaves, weeds and grass has died back I will find a few. I hope so.





I planted a few spaghetti squash this year for the first time. Someone told me that the stringy inner part looks and tastes like spaghetti noodles and is good with sauce on it, much like you would eat spaghetti. I planted a few, just a few to try. There are four of them growing out there now and they look like they are doing very well. I don't know how the guys will go for having squash instead of noodles, time will tell. It's bound to be healthier but that's not necessarily a "seller" at our house, unfortunately.

I planted three other types of interesting squash, "upper ground sweet potato" squash that is suppose to taste a lot like sweet potatoes, (we love sweet potatoes!), "sweet mama" squash which should be very sweet and "pink banana" squash, just because it was interesting.The "sweet potato" squash" are huge, the size of a very large pumpkin! Isn't it lovely and big! There are two of them! That should give us quite a lot of "sweet potato" squash.














The "sweet mama" squash are smaller and grew on a trellis. I have two of those growing with 
the tomatoes.

I have already received a few seeds for "Sweet dumpling" squash to grow next year.






Squash is so easy to grow and so much fun! Because most of what I grow are maxima, they do tend to cross a bit even though I do hand pollinate most of it, but I'm ok with that.

I would love to plant a very large field full of various squash and have a "pick your own squash" week in the fall. Maybe next year I'll do that. I could grow some jack-o-lantern pumpkins in there too.

I have a surprise jack-o-lantern pumpkin plant growing in the old chicken pen now. We don't have chickens at the moment and the growth in there is amazing. It is so thick with huge weeds, and this pumkin, due to the old chicken manure in there. I am looking forward to seeing the size of those pumpkins! The stems on this pumpkin plant stretch to the roof of the 6' pen and have leaves to match in size. Amazing growth! The massive weeds in there with it prevent any pumpkin viewing at this time, but they will all die back with fall comes.

I also have a squash or pumpkin growing in the old compost pile. Its so weedy I can't see what it is right now.

I have never seen a squash borer but I have planted the squash in a different field so far every year. Maybe it's just not a problem up here. Something has to compensate us for 
the winters!

I can grow squash! I cannot, however, seem to grow luffahs...