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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >I've not raised squash for overwintering for many years. What are your  
> habits on how you use them? Do you eat some during the summer or hold  
> them until autumn?

Gene, there's a basket of smallish butternut squash on the table, maybe a 
dozen or so left, from LAST year's crop.  They are solid and only very 
slightly 
abated from when we picked them last October.  We had some with supper a 
couple 
of days ago.

The deal with winter squash is to plant them the very latest you can get by 
with.  In my climate, now is too early.

If the summer squashes mature in hot weather, they begin to deteriorate and 
only last a few months.  But if they mature just as frost is theatening, they 
will last past the next harvest.  The very best is for that first kiss of 
frost 
to kill the vines but only blush the skin of the fruits just as they are 
maturing.

Adjust the 'days to maturity' to allow for them growing in the hottest part 
of the year, the days will be significantly fewer.  Last year I planted the 
squash around the 25th of August and they were just mature when the frost got 
the 
vines on the 27th of October.

Of course, you can't predict the weather, but in 
non-dought-of-Biblical-proportions years, I plant  some hills every two weeks 
from mid July on.  If I get 
too many, I keep the latest and feed the rest to the pigs.

Last year we had to hand water the squash because it was Mojave dry during 
August and September.  That's why the butternuts were a bit small.  But, 
oddly, 
the acorn and other squash weren't.

Cushaws go the quickest and we are lucky to have any keep all the way to 
Christmas. So there are lots of cushaw pies at Thanksgiving.  Then the 
Jarradale, 
Queensland Blue, Dakota, and all and sundry are eaten next as they keep the 
next best.    If Feb and March we eat the Candy Roasters, and the acron 
squahs 
kept until late May.  Sometimes they, he acorn and candy roasters, will keep 
until the next harvest as well.   </HTML>