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