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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Nov 21, 2014 16:43:39 GMT -5
I laughed my head off today. Because something happened to me that was super unexpected... I've been cooking a squash per day, and eating them. Saving seeds. So today my squash was about a 15# look-alike for those Salmon River squash. I shouldn't have been surprised because Carol said that she opens squash like that by dropping them from waist high onto the driveway, and they flop open right in half... I wanted to slam it using all of my masculine strength... But I chose to follow the suggested procedure. Oh my heck!!! I laughed my head off when it cracked all the way around, slick as could be, and no pieces went flying.
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Post by philagardener on Nov 21, 2014 17:36:31 GMT -5
Sometimes just following the directions works!
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Post by catanache on Nov 21, 2014 18:10:26 GMT -5
But when I tried it the silly thing bounced! Waist high, head high, as high as I could reach... Bounced each time. Then it landed on my toes so I gave up and took a cleaver to it. Guess maybe Piacentina squashes are a bit more stubborn. At the end of all that it wasn't even showing a crack, just a few scuff marks. Tasted okay but I think I could have left it curing a bit longer.
I live a few miles from William Woys Weaver but have no idea how I might get in contact with him. I was thinking it'd be fun to volunteer to help with weeding, projects or whatever but the only website I've found hasn't been updated in awhile. Ah well.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Nov 21, 2014 19:14:32 GMT -5
I laughed my head my head off for a second time today, because of surprise. The first squash I cooked today tasted bad, so I cooked a second. I took it out and dropped it from waist high. It bounced. I dropped it from shoulder high. It bounced. I dropped it from over my head... It broke apart into 3 pieces. Only one pebble made it into the squash.
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Post by flowerweaver on Nov 21, 2014 21:16:31 GMT -5
Joseph Lofthouse now in your meticulous notes you'll have to include a dropping height and bounce rate for each of your squashes. I expect to see a chart on this in the near future
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Post by philagardener on Jan 18, 2015 18:51:40 GMT -5
Cooked a large Hubbard today. Dropped it (in a large plastic bag) from waist height onto a concrete patio. Broke beautifully into about 8 pieces. Worked like a charm!
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Post by kazedwards on Jan 26, 2015 22:35:55 GMT -5
But when I tried it the silly thing bounced! Waist high, head high, as high as I could reach... Bounced each time. Then it landed on my toes so I gave up and took a cleaver to it. Guess maybe Piacentina squashes are a bit more stubborn. At the end of all that it wasn't even showing a crack, just a few scuff marks. Tasted okay but I think I could have left it curing a bit longer. I live a few miles from William Woys Weaver but have no idea how I might get in contact with him. I was thinking it'd be fun to volunteer to help with weeding, projects or whatever but the only website I've found hasn't been updated in awhile. Ah well. I emailed the contact email on www.williamwoysweaver.com about a year ago and he responded quickly with an answer and seemed friendly in the email. I'd start there see if it works.
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Post by Walk on Feb 21, 2015 8:59:41 GMT -5
Last night we ate the next to last of our Flat White Boer squash. All the fruits we had eaten to date had been watery and bland in flavor. But the squash we cooked up yesterday was noticeably better - firmer, more squash flavor, less watery. It was one of the two fruits that I did hand pollination on, which were the two first fruits set. They had the longest time to mature, so maybe our rather short season is more of a challenge to this squash than anything inherently wrong with the variety. I won't grow it again here in Minnesota but I don't want my experience with it to discourage others with longer growing seasons.
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Post by reed on Feb 22, 2015 6:30:31 GMT -5
I have also found the most delectable winter squashes and melons are preferred by our field mice. I have yet to harvest a Kabocha. I have six cats and four terriers that work the place. I also set out live traps (so my animals don't get injured) and poison is out of the question. Do you have any strategies for combating their destruction Walk? This year I painstakingly built a couple of hardware cloth prototype cages to fit around some I didn't want to lose for seed and that helped. But I can't build enough to protect them all! I can't remember where it was but I saw an idea for a better mouse trap. They were using it inside at a camp cabin and appeared to work pretty well although a little gross and inhumane, o'well. I wonder if buried in the ground it might work outside. Anyway it was a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled opposite each other across the top, a pop can with holes in the centers of the ends and a thin metal rod. The rod ran through the holes to suspend the can over the center of the bucket so that it rotated easily and bait, I think they used peanut butter, smeared on the can. When the critters tried to balance on the rim and reach for the bait they ended up falling in and drowning. Without the water, I suppose you could use it as a catch and release set up. You might modify the bait to whatever your critters like best and I think a ball might be better than the can but it looked like it did work.
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