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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] off topic--pumpkins squash

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  • From: "Kieran and/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] off topic--pumpkins squash
  • Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:46:59 -0500

It's a bit late for you this year, but Fedco really looks hard for good short season squashes. Flavorwise I have to agree, Buttercup is the best.

For southerners: Of what we can actually grow here in squash borer territory, butternut is of course good and reliable. Of what we can just almost grow here, borderline, Seminole pumpkin is the best. Sandhill Preservation is selling a version that reproduces fine for them, that's the teardrop shaped one. Its pretty good. Fedco unfortunately had the daylength sensitive one. The flat Seminole pumpkin and the large round Cuban pumpkin are day length sensitive and probably shouldn't be tried north of Chattanooga, or a bit further north along the eastern seaboard. They are absolutely terrific. The Atlanta farmer's mkt tends to have them either cut or whole, a good way to get seeds and sample what you are buying at the same time. Ditto for oriental and Mexican grocery stores. I bought some of "The Star" from a guy who used to work in the Atlanta farmer's mkt, he grew them up near the TN-KY line and they did fine. It's more medium sized and square sided than the very round Cuban type. All these are wonderful eating. Stay away from those miserable bitterish stringy long things that look like huge watermelons. My mother loves them, I don't know why. They too are daylength sensitive, borer resistant and will cross with your butternuts and Seminole pumpkins and ruin future planting with their off flavor. The cow pumpkins they grow around here are also moschata but at least they are merely boring. The good sweet flavor is lost in the first cross, so don't let any crummy ones in your garden after you find a strain you like.
And changing the subject just slightly, if you don't save your own moschate seed, another great one to grow is Tromboncini. They make summer squash to fill in after the borers have killed your zukes and crooknecks. The ones you don't eat young and tender are still good all through the autumn. Donna




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