Cleaning up squash seeds

[flowerbug]

having saved and dried the squash seeds from this past season they were taking up too much room on the floor sitting there waiting for me to get to them. for my own uses it wouldn't matter if the seeds had some dried up pulp left on them, but to reduce how much space they'd take in storage i decided to clean them all up.

for the shiny-er seeds i found out that putting them in a terry type cloth or towel and then mushing them around well with my hands got them clean within a few minutes. then i'd pick out the bad ones and break them in half and toss them in the bucket of dry scraps i use for feeding the worms. it will give the small worms something to hide and play in.

the Baby Blue Hubbards had a different type of seed coating/texture which made cleaning them up more of a challenge but i got those done too. i have a life time supply of squash seeds now. except i've still not figured out where the Buttercup seeds went. i thought i had some set aside to dry but i didn't see them. i guess i hope to find them as i get more reorganising and cleaning done the next few months. i do have some older ones that i hope will grow, but i was hoping these newer ones would work out better (they didn't grow great, but i did get some squash so i should have seeds around...).

my normal method for getting squash seeds is to just squeeze them apart from the pulp i've scraped out of the squash and then let them dry well and stir them once in a while the first few days they are drying. after they have dried then i just have to remove that bit of pulp and shiny coating that remains.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I'm sure you know that the Blue Hubbard will cross with Buttercup??

 

[flowerbug]

I'm sure you know that the Blue Hubbard will cross with Buttercup??

yes, we'll see what happens.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That might be an interesting cross!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Could be some mighty fine eating. Could end up being animal fodder! I had one such cross that looked absolutely wonderful. It was green and orange streaked/mottled, shaped like a hubbard. I think it was hubbard x Red Hokaido. It was pulpy, dry, and totally without flavor. An other time, I had 22# Buttercup, and also a Buttercup x Red Hokaido that were absolutely outstanding.

 

[Britesea]

as long as you have animals that will eat them, nothing is a waste! Did you save the seed from the squashes that tasted good? How did they turn out? I'm sure some ended up no good, but some might have fixed the positive attributes?

 

[flowerbug]

Could be some mighty fine eating. Could end up being animal fodder! I had one such cross that looked absolutely wonderful. It was green and orange streaked/mottled, shaped like a hubbard. I think it was hubbard x Red Hokaido. It was pulpy, dry, and totally without flavor. An other time, I had 22# Buttercup, and also a Buttercup x Red Hokaido that were absolutely outstanding.

what i really liked about the BBH's this year (them being new to me/us) was that they were moist as compared to the Kabochas we grew so that in the end when roasting them and mashing them together they ended up being a perfect combination. i also liked eating the BBHs by themself as they reminded me of a more flavorful Acorn squash. so i'm probably going to be growing these again next season. i sure have enough seeds for an acre or three of squash now (we don't have that much room).

 

[Mini Horses]

Do you let your vining types run or do you climb? I've had some butternuts go up a fence. Made nice clean squash. . I'm wanting to plant, weather isn't! Hurry spring. Craving that far, far off garden ripe tomato!

 

[flowerbug]

Do you let your vining types run or do you climb? I've had some butternuts go up a fence. Made nice clean squash. . I'm wanting to plant, weather isn't! Hurry spring. Craving that far, far off garden ripe tomato!

we just let them run and they may go 30-40 ft.

 

[Mini Horses]

Mine too. This year I plan to grow some corn, which I don't often. But I will put hills of these big squash within the patch so they can run among them. Helps shade ground and saves space. A portion of "3 sisters" growing style. With corn you do little after the plant gets about a foot, so perfect for vines that also need little while just growing. They can lounge around together.