Dry Winter Squash

[gardensup]

I have to agree about the positive comments regarding Canada Crookneck. I grew it for the first time last year and was amazed at the richness of the flavour. When used in soups, it puts them into gourmet territory. It also has two outstanding growing characteristics. First of all, it is very drought tolerant. Secondly, squash vine borers ignore it.

I have seen a few positive descriptions regarding Stella Blue Hokkaido. Has anyone grown both Stella Blue and Uncle David’s Dakota Dessert? If so, how does the flavour compare?

[prairiegardens]

I haven't grown the Stella but fwiw  Uncle David's Dakota squash is on my must have list. I have some saved seed that may have crossed with Marina de Chiogga but the Marina got nailed by the weather before it ripened so I never got to try the squash itself. It was a little disappointing it wasn't mentioned by anyone.

[flowerbug]

Canada Crookneck sounds interesting, but i'm wondering how similar it might be to Butternut as i am not a huge fan of those for some reason (perhaps eating too many of them). i much prefer any variety of Buttercup i can get.

this season i have two new ones to try Burgess Buttercup and Baby Blue Hubbard. we'll see how the bugs treat them. i don't spray or particularly pamper squash and while the borers and squash bugs are around they don't usually kill the plants completely. our normal squash over the past dozen years has been a mix of Buttercup and Kobochas. the Buttercup got crossed with some other local squash but i don't know who grows them near enough that it would have happened. anyways, they ended up having some orange in them and were sweeter than, but i haven't been able to continue that line as all the Buttercup seeds i planted last year didn't sprout/grow. i'll keep planting whatever seeds i have left just in case some do decide to sprout again this year along with all the rest.

last year i planted so late that we didn't have a very good harvest (in combination with all the rains we had). the few squash that did make it to maturity from the Kobochas were good flavor and all eaten up before mid-winter came along. the large number i had to process early meant that not many aged very long which does make a difference to the flavor, but also a lot of them were rotting inside too.

it will be an interesting year in the gardens as usual. always something going on to keep me interesting and wondering.