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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Butternut squash
  • Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 12:38:28 EDT


> >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>




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