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| Immature Buttercup, September 2013 |
The Buttercup was prolific, and although rather ugly and warty, tasted great. The flavor is very similar to sweet potatoes. We peeled off the worst of the warts, cut them in half, removed the seeds and placed them face down in a shallow baking dish with a small amount of water, covered with foil and baked. They were so good, we didn't even add butter. Another plus for the Buttercup, is that they are great keepers.
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| Immature Cushaw, September 2013 |
The Cushaw squash produced very well, also. The flavor wasn't as sweet, but they were huge. We were surprised. The volume of edible squash is very large. This squash freezes well either in chunks or boiled and mashed into a puree type consistency. One of our goals is to can some of this squash, but we haven't achieved that goal yet.
Both the Buttercup and the Cushaw make great squash pie which we enjoy every winter.
The last two years I have planted our winter squash in late July or early August. I figured it was still hot enough for squash to grow, but closer to fall, which is when I thought a winter squash should be grown, like pumpkins. It hasn't worked out well at all. Both last year and this year the plants have suffered from powdery mildew, had the flowers affected somewhat by potato beetles, still had to contend with some squash bugs and just overall haven't thrived. This year we will be lucky to get 3 decent Cushaws. We only planted one variety this year because we wanted to save the seeds. It was difficult not to plant the Buttercup because we really like them, too.
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| The last Cushaw on the vine for this year. We hope it gets bigger. |
Next year I will plant the winter squashes when I plant the yellow squash. In May. There may be locations where the winter squashes do better later in the season, but it just doesn't seem to be the case here. We really were hopeful about this crop. Our goal was to be able to store at least 20 large Cushaw. They are very nutritious and so are the seeds, which is an added bonus. Squash seeds also make good animal feed for chickens and goats.
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| Our Cushaw harvest. All 2 of them. |
We are glad we have had time to learn the most effective growing patterns for the vegetables we like. The knowledge that some crops grow and produce better than others in our location is valuable information. There are always things that come up that compete with the time and effort needed to grow and preserve food. This year has definitely been one of the less productive years for us. But, in the midst of the gardening and preserving disruptions, we have still learned a lot of very valuable lessons. For that, we are thankful.
Until next time - Fern
That's it! Valuable lessons and learning what grows good at your house. That's what I did this year too. So surprised at how well most did. Still a lot to try next year too. I'm already planning for spring!
ReplyDeleteNothing explains the lessons of life better than experience. Already planning for spring? Great idea! Thank you for sharing.
DeleteFern
I had the same thing happen this year with melons and pumpkins. So disappointing! But like you said, we learn valuable lessons through trial and error. Thanks for sharing! Blessings from Bama!
ReplyDeleteWe will just have to manage with fewer squash pies this winter, Felecia. But I sure hope next year's crop does much better. Take care.
DeleteFern
I thought I was the only one!
ReplyDeleteMy pumpkins this year were a disaster. How pathetic mine look! I should have had 30 sugar pumpkins. I have 10 and they are half the size they should be. And sugar pumpkins are small to begin with.
Out of 20 butternut squash plants, I got ONE squash! Most of my plants never even put out female blossoms.
I had to BUY squash and pie pumpkins from a local grower. The shame.
I haven't figured out yet what happened. I will. I'm the human.
This is another huge lesson for those people out there who've never gardened. One can't just throw seeds in the ground "when the time comes" and have automatic food. I've gardened for years, and you have, too. I usually know what I'm doing, but I would be in dire straits right now if I had to depend on my meager squash crop to get me through the winter.
I rambled a bit -- thanks for reading my comment.
Just me
Just Me, it seems there are lots of people that had poor squash crops this year. And you're right, we would be in dismal shape if we had to depend on our garden this year.
DeleteWe are currently reading a book about the dust bowl, and back in those days if you didn't put food up for the winter, your family starved. We didn't do any fruit this year at all. So, we're going to go to the big box store and buy a few cases of canned peaches and pears. If we were in a dust bowl type of scenario this year, Fern and I would be getting very hungry.
Thank you for your observation.
Frank
A lot of our winter squash were slow this year and are just getting going now. We think they got overwhelmed by the Costata Romanesco Zucchini which were awesome but huge for Zucchini plants! However the volunteer Pink banana Squash did very well. We love Cushaw and have had very good luck with Blue Hubbard. They store really well and bake well too. Gardening always has something to wonder about. We are harvesting our tub of Ginger today.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have had many things that performed well this year, Fiona. That's great. What are you going to do with the ginger? Thank you for sharing.
DeleteFern
I only did pumpkins this year but pumpkins never do well for me. I always hope they'll do better than they do. I'll go back to cushaw next year I suppose. They've done the best for me so far.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, I kept thinking that I was planting our winter squash at the right time in July, but it just hasn't worked out. So, back to the original drawing board. Experience, right? Even though our wishes may be otherwise, experience will show what works best. Thank you for sharing.
DeleteFern
For me it was cucumbers, melons and pumpkins that did poorly. Le SIGH!!! I have really Really REALLY rocky soil so am still upping the soil additives since we moved here. Unfortunately all my soil is not as loamy and fertile as I'd like it to be. Tomatoes, Summer Squash and Peppers liked to of swamped us though! When the freezer is full, canning cupboard full, under the bed is full and neighbors go to hiding when you drive up w/yet another bag to share? We took our overage to the local senior citizen center. I still have a very large number of green tomatoes on the vine. One night temp here was 38 degrees this week so it won't be long until I'll have to wrap the green tomatoes in newspaper like Momma used to do. Firewood is all in place and a fire laid in the woodstove ready to strike the first match on winter living! Hope everyone else has their wood in. ~Sassafras
ReplyDeleteIt's funny to see people drawing the shades and turning the lights off when they see you coming again, Sassafras! Just kidding.
DeleteI hope you have a good source of barnyard material to add to your soil. There is nothing like it for adding nutrients and organic matter. After six years, our garden soil is in very good shape, except for the newly added areas which we will amend again this winter with barnyard, chicken house cleanings and wood ashes.
38 degrees, huh? We've been down to 43 degrees recently, but that's the coldest so far. Yes, we have the firewood ready. Time to check the flue to make sure no visitors have taken up residence and the creosote hasn't left any build up.
Thank you for sharing.
Fern
Ha Ha!
DeleteWe don't keep animals Fern (long story). But, we have neighbors who do and I had the local cattleman deliver me a truck load of cow & horse manure. There may be some problem with weeds from this but we really have no topsoil here at all. Dig an inch and you'll pull up three inches worth of rock with about a 1/4 tsp. of sandy-ish 'soil'. We have to do raised beds and I've put in a whole lot of raised buckets for growing things in. We have two new beds in the works with a sort of hugelkulture build-up going on - last years leaves, then a layer of wood logs, then another layer of leaves and we are just now adding this manure, then the second layer of leaves which are falling now, & we have put all of our compost materials directly into the beds and will finish before winter (next week if the rain holds off) with top soil and a cover crop of mustard greens.
On the temps - where we're located, we are rather consistently five degrees cooler than Tulsa. ~Sassafras
I would also like to throw out that what grow good one year may not grow well the next depending on weather patterns. For instance during the drought we experienced several years ago I had the most beautiful sweet potatoes I have ever grown. For 2 years after they have not fared as well because we have had cool and wet springs and lacked the heat and dry weather that they love. Other crops that loved that cool moist weather took their place. Hugs CQ
ReplyDeleteIt is true, CQ, you cannot count on the same harvest two years in a row. That's probably why we hear the advice to preserve two years worth if the harvest is adequate. Then just make sure to follow a good rotation schedule when eating everything up. Thank you for sharing.
DeleteFern
I just ran into your site and read about "Squash Failures". I too grow cushaw. I live in Indiana and start mine in the ground as soon as the ground warms up, usually before the end of May. I had four vines this year, one of which produced five squash to maturity(10-20lbs). I harvest them when the closest tendril shrivels up and then set them in a shady dry space till fall (3 weeks ago). I have kept them intact until needed for up to 18 months. I really like your site and will be checking out more as I have time.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your growing techniques. We were really disappointed this year. I will definitely be planting early next year, just like you did. I'm glad you found us and are enjoying what you see. Again, thank you. Reading about other folks experiences helps us to learn and be more successful in our endeavors.
DeleteFern