The last butternut squash.

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I havested these butternut squashes - not last year (2001) - the year before (fall of 2000). This was the last one. It kept for 17 months.

No, they won't all do that, but when everything is just right - when you picked it, how the squash cured on the outside, etc.

It weighs a little less, but the flesh is firm and rich orange for a nice pie. What did we learn here? As we experiment on which vegetables to concentrate on if we should see hard times, we watch what produces well, is versatile, and keeps well. A butternut squash is a prolific bearer. In a good season, a couple of good plants will yeild wheelbarrow loads. It can be used for desserts (cake,pie, and cookies, or as a potatoe for the meal with butter, salt, and pepper or baked. And, with the completion of this experiment, we can say they certainly keep well. (When I was storing my 2001 crop, I stopped to check the firmness of my 2000 squashes.)

Learn, and then, share what you learn.

-- homestead2 (homestead@localnetplus.com), February 05, 2002

Answers

Try spegetti squash, It will keep for ever too. If kept in right conditions. Cut in half, and wrap in foil,pop into over at 350 for a hr or so, till feels soft. And take fork and run through it, and it will be like spagetti, and put some butter on it, And it is great.course take out seeds before bakeing

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), February 05, 2002.

Boy, am I glad to hear this! I'm going to print this out and show it to my wife so she'll know I'm not the *only* person who does stuff like this.

I've got a Waltham Butternut sitting in the kitchen basket right now that I harvested in August of 2000. These things keep wonderfully and I've been letting this one sit to see just how long it would go. Weight wise it feels like it's probably a bit dry inside but it hasn't spoiled.

If you live in the Deep South there's another squash called a "Seminole Pumpkin" that will also keep near to forever and has good disease and vine borer resistance. Too me it's pretty much a butternut in color and taste but just rounder instead of bulbous on one end. If you have a long enough growing season it'll probably grow pretty well up north too.

After writing about food storage for these last four or five years my wife has become accustomed to my little food storage and preservation experiments but that squash seems to be getting her goat...

........Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), February 05, 2002.


I also have a bread machine recipe that uses butternut squash, and the children love it.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), February 06, 2002.

WOW! I can't believe this. I was just down in the basement sorting through the winter squashes and was thinking this very thing today! I have another one that will last a long time too. Cushaw! It is much bigger for a larger family! The cushaws are so large that I only bake one up when I need pumpkin for canning or the freezer or massive quantities of pumpkin bread and pies! My spaghetti squashes and butternuts last just about the same amount of time. I have them on newsprint on the basement floor. That seems to keep them for a long time. At least a year, until the next ones are ready. We eat a lot of squash. Where do you all keep yours? I plant Waltham butternut...what type are yours? I have heard that some last better than others. This one is sure a good keeper!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), February 06, 2002.

And if your garden gets squash vine borer, butternuts are able to resist these better than any other squash. Now I'm hungry for Morrocan stew. Made with the squash, that is , not the borers.

-- vicki in NW OH (thga76@aol.com), February 06, 2002.


Incidentally, did you know that if you plant a few radish seeds in each hill of squash(Winter or Summer) that it will repel those pesky pests! Just let the radishes go to seed and leave them there until harvesting the squash.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), February 06, 2002.

Being a bit of a crazy when it comes to saving seed, this post is of great interest to me. Do any of you have "pure" seed, ie. seed of these incredibly long keepers that has not been contaminated by another squash? If that is the ONLY squash of the 4 varities that you grew, it may be so. I would be MOST happy to get a few seeds of your wonderfully long keepers, and will trade for whatever OP seeds I have, admittedly mostly heirloom tomatoes. E-mail direct please. I would love to have any of these open pollenated long keepers. Ain't it fun to trade seeds? Also, anybody have any "African Horned Melon",or "Jelly Melon" seeds? (Same thing, I just want to grow a few more of those extremely weird things after a few years hiatus. Lost my seeds!) GL to all. I'll offer about 50 varities of heirloom tomato seeds to whoever might want them. $1 plus SASE (55 cents). That's not per variety, that's per envelope. I'll send you up to 5 varities for the buck plus 55 cent envelope. But I'll ask that you also try to propogate the heirlooms. Weird people (verified) can take advantage of this offer free. I'm weird, but not verifieable -- what about you?

GL to all!

Strange Brad, aka Potentate

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), February 06, 2002.


I, too, like spaghetti squash. However, they don't seem to work very well in the microwave. First time I tried one (long ago when I was still a city dweller), I bought a spaghetti squash at the grocery store. A sticky lable on the squash said to poke it a few times with a fork, and then microwave. Have you ever tried to clean all those strings off the inside of a microwave? With two young teens killing themselves laughing while you did? And the bloody thing sounded like a shotgun when it exploded too!

I envy anyone with a root cellar, or even suitable space for storage vegetables. Our very tiny house has only a crawl space. We heat with circulated hot water that is heated by wood. There is a heater in the crawl space (it's under the kitchen floor). Wonderful on cold winter mornings, but not at all good for storage.

Good friends will be building next door to us this summer. I'm looking forward to the very large cold storage area that will be part of their new home! I'll grow it - they'll 'keep' it!

My favorite squash is the small sweet potato or dumpling type squash. Just big enough for a meal. I would think they'd keep well as they have a fairly tough skin. I will find out next winter!

-- Bernie from Northern Ontario (bernadette_kerr@hotmail.com), February 06, 2002.


Brad I've got Homesteader peas and Potomac pole beans and Black Valentine green beans that I saved . Any of those interest you? What tomatoes do you have? I can't do the SASE thing with you since I am in Canada and can't get US postage stamps.

-- Alison in NS (aproteau@istar.ca), February 06, 2002.

Nan, thanks for the radish information!

-- Nina (ingardenwithcat@hotmail.com), February 06, 2002.


You're welcome! :~) :~) !!!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), February 07, 2002.

You'd better use 57 cents on the SASE to get seeds from Brad. That's the 2-ounce domestic rate. Otherwise, you'll get socked with Postage Due!

Martin

-- Martin Longseth (paquebot@merr.com), February 07, 2002.


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