[NAFEX] off topic--pumpkins squash

Road's End Farm organic87 at frontiernet.net
Fri Apr 9 10:31:55 EDT 2010


On Apr 9, 2010, at 9:26 AM, Dale Burkholder wrote:

> Winter Luxury.
> The best. Small pumpkins, maybe 5 lb., with good smooth texture and  
> excellent flavor. We made pies with about 6 kinds of pumpkins/squash  
> last year and the clear winner was Winter Luxury. 95 day maturity -  
> can you work with that? Some of the moschata types are also very  
> good. Of course, stay away from the nice looking big Halloween type  
> things; the Red Deliciouses of the pumpkin world. I must admit, we  
> haven't grown butternut squash yet.
>
> Dale Burkholder
> Shenandoah Valley, VA
> zone 6b

I grew Winter Luxury one year and found it nice textured, but  
extremely bland, with almost no flavor. Maybe it depends on where you  
grow it. I find New England Pie pumpkin is better in flavor, but not  
as good as most squash.

I second (third? fourth?) butternut squash, and add Hubbard, if you  
can get it ripe: the best pies I've ever had were made from New  
England Blue Hubbard squash, but that's probably (and some strains of  
butternut may be) too long season for you. Buttercup squash also makes  
a very nice pie. If you have squash bugs, hubbard and buttercup  
varieties are likely to be harder to grow.

Fisher's Seeds, in Montana, specializes in short season varieties: you  
might try their Mountaineer. They're not online, but are a very nice  
little company; a number of their varieties are of their own breeding:

Fisher's Seeds
PO Box 236
Belgrade, Montana 59714
406-388-6052

Whatever varieties you try, start them from transplant, about three  
weeks before your soil / weather is warm enough to plant them out.  
That will speed things up significantly. Don't disturb the roots --  
plant them in divided packs or maybe soil blocks, not in the kind of  
pack from which you have to separate the plants when planting out; and  
handle them carefully to minimize root disturbance.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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