Long keeping winter squashes

[Zenbirder]

I am interested to know more about the winter squashes people grow, I am doing some experimentation but there are so many out there to try. My personal goal is to find good keepers that taste good. I would like to know variety and species, seed company if known, how long they keep on average, and rate them 1 to 10 on Yuck to Yum scale. My best so far is:

Waltham butternut, C. moschata, original seed from Territorial now from my own saved seed, I just found a lost box of them that is one full year old and they are in perfect shape, and at least a 9 on the yum scale.

I just harvested so don't know taste or keeping:
Gold nugget kabocha, C. maxima
Small wonder spaghetti, C. pepo

Years ago I tried some acorn squash and whatever the variety was it didn't keep well. I would love to hear your choices!

 

[patandchickens]

Butternut gets my vote. I've never tried to keep them as long as yours but boy do they keep well.

Pat

 

[roosmom]

:| My husband doesnt like squash, darn it.

 

[patandchickens]

Make pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread with it He will never know the difference, largely because commercial canned pumpkin is, as I understand it, generally SQUASH not pumpkin anyhow <g>

Also, have you tried him on mashed butternut squash with a little bit of butter added. I have had great success with that for converting squash haters in my extended family. Myself, too, really - I still am not all that enthusiastic about other winter squashes or preparations thereof

Pat

 

[roosmom]

LOL, he wouldnt even touch squash when we first met...he will at least now tolerate it, barely. That is how my mother and I make it, butter and some brown sugar. I want to try to make some REAL homeade pumpkin pies this fall. Yes I understand they do taste different.

 

[me&thegals]

What a great thread!

My votes are for

1. Waltham Butternut
2. Musquee de Provence, cucurbita moschata. Huge, beautiful squash/pumpkin with a LOT of meat to it, great tough outer skin and amazing flavor, color and texture for cooking, soups, baking. I will ALWAYS plant this beauty!

By the way, if you want to go absolutely gaga nuts over squash, try the website rareseeds.com.

 

[enjoy the ride]

I have kept acorn squash for quite awhile but it has to be done carefully- no bruised or abraided spots which is hard to tell due to dark skin, and good air circulation in a place that is cool but not frozen. Supporting the squash off the ground like on a cardboard box while growing can help. It's by far my favorite but it doesn't keep as well. Here that is not so much of an issue as our winter is shorter. But mildew is due to humidity.
BTW pumpkin is a squash-lol

 

[Zenbirder]

2. Musquee de Provence, cucurbita moschata. Huge, beautiful squash/pumpkin with a LOT of meat to it, great tough outer skin and amazing flavor, color and texture for cooking, soups, baking. I will ALWAYS plant this beauty!

By the way, if you want to go absolutely gaga nuts over squash, try the website rareseeds.com.

Thanks so much! this is exactly what I am looking for. Wow that site has a LOT of winter squash. I bookmarked the site and will probably place an order this winter.

Squash are good in pies, sweet breads, soup and chunked in stews, as well as mashed with butter. I didn't keep the butternuts a year on purpose, they got lost in a box in the shop.

 

[annmarie]

A very popular winter squash around here (New England) is the Blue Hubbard squash. It's a giagantic, ugly, bluish-grey blob of a squash, that tastes very similar to a butternut squash, only a little milder maybe. It stores for around 6 months, and once you cut (aka. sledgehammer) one open you have about 4-6 meals worth, depending on the size.

 

[tortoise]

Table Queen Acorn Squash is my best keeper. I still have a few (end of April) from last year's garden.

My other preferred squash is pie pumpkins. Some years they keep great, some years they rot. I don't know what makes the difference.

I like butternut for flavor, but they don't keep well enough for me.