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#1
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My new favorite winter squash
The local grocery advertised kabocha squash, an Asian
variety. This has got to be the best squash I've ever had. Mild & sweet. It looks like a little green pumpkin. Add some to soups & stews to help make a good rich broth. If you cut it in half, clean out the seeds, microwave it for a few minutes, it makes it a lot easier to cut off the rind. I've saved the seed for next year. This variety would make excellent pies. Winter squash can sit on the counter for months and still be good. Ready when you are to cook it. The Butternut Squash barely did good enough in the garden to eat this year, after working over the soil, adding compost & fertilizer. They could fit in my hand. Zucchini didn't even try to grow. There was only a tiny acorn squash, not even big enough to think about cooking. The Kohlrabi waited until the end of September to germinate. They're still small and might be killed off by cold before they get much bigger. Okra did good as always. Beets did good. I tried a new variety this year that turned out to be small. Tomato's & corn died, they never do well in this area, for me. Turnips did good. Collard greens didn't germinate. I usually plant a lot of everything and wait to see what grows. The neighbors horses ate all the lettuce. My neighbors let their horses out at dark. They run over here to eat & drink all night. They don't usually bother anything. There's a colt that has doubled in size in the last three months. It runs over here all happy and full of life. When someone here is outside when it comes over, it runs home telling the others, go back, go back, we can't eat over there tonight, someone is outside. Horses aren't like deer which eat anything and everything. We don't have many deer around here. The horses mostly graze on grass, but they do like lettuce. |
#2
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My new favorite winter squash
possum said:
The local grocery advertised kabocha squash, an Asian variety. This has got to be the best squash I've ever had. Mild & sweet. It looks like a little green pumpkin. Add some to soups & stews to help make a good rich broth. Kabocha = squash in Japanese Kabocha are excellent: dry-fleshed, sweet and almost reminiscent of chestnuts. My favorite kabocha variety is a cross-species hybrid variety called 'Tetsukabuto' (translates to Iron Helmet). Very beautiful squash, green with silver flecks and 'bloom' on the rind, sometimes washed with orange. The C. moschata parent gives it resistance to squash vine borers plus productivity and the C. maxima parent the superb flavor and texture. (Available from Pinetree Garden Seeds) -- Pat in Plymouth MI "Yes, swooping is bad." email valid but not regularly monitored |
#3
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My new favorite winter squash
Pat Kiewicz wrote:
possum said: The local grocery advertised kabocha squash, an Asian variety. This has got to be the best squash I've ever had. Mild & sweet. It looks like a little green pumpkin. Add some to soups & stews to help make a good rich broth. Kabocha = squash in Japanese Kabocha are excellent: dry-fleshed, sweet and almost reminiscent of chestnuts. My favorite kabocha variety is a cross-species hybrid variety called 'Tetsukabuto' (translates to Iron Helmet). Very beautiful squash, green with silver flecks and 'bloom' on the rind, sometimes washed with orange. The C. moschata parent gives it resistance to squash vine borers plus productivity and the C. maxima parent the superb flavor and texture. (Available from Pinetree Garden Seeds) How productive are they? (Tetsukabuto) And are they any good picked immature, like a summer squash? Bob |
#4
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My new favorite winter squash
zxcvbob said:
Pat Kiewicz wrote: My favorite kabocha variety is a cross-species hybrid variety called 'Tetsukabuto' (translates to Iron Helmet). Very beautiful squash, green with silver flecks and 'bloom' on the rind, sometimes washed with orange. The C. moschata parent gives it resistance to squash vine borers plus productivity and the C. maxima parent the superb flavor and texture. (Available from Pinetree Garden Seeds) How productive are they? (Tetsukabuto) And are they any good picked immature, like a summer squash? Never had one immature; they are too good as a winter squash to muck around that way. As for productivity, two hills of Tetsukabuto will generally equal the production of the other six hills of squash I plant, in terms of numbers, though not quite by weight. The only problem with the variety is that it is a hybrid, so no seed saving, and it must be grown along side a variety of C. moschata (for example, a butternut) or C. maxima (like a more typical kabocha or buttercup) to ensure pollination. I like to put away a lot of squash puree each year for soup and waffles (yummmmy...with home-made spiced apple jelly) so I'm always trying new varieties looking for those with good flavor and substance as well as productivity. And the one constant for many years now has been Tetsukabuto. -- Pat in Plymouth MI "Yes, swooping is bad." email valid but not regularly monitored |
#5
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My new favorite winter squash
Pat Kiewicz wrote:
zxcvbob said: How productive are they? (Tetsukabuto) And are they any good picked immature, like a summer squash? Never had one immature; they are too good as a winter squash to muck around that way. As for productivity, two hills of Tetsukabuto will generally equal the production of the other six hills of squash I plant, in terms of numbers, though not quite by weight. The only problem with the variety is that it is a hybrid, so no seed saving, and it must be grown along side a variety of C. moschata (for example, a butternut) or C. maxima (like a more typical kabocha or buttercup) to ensure pollination. I like to put away a lot of squash puree each year for soup and waffles (yummmmy...with home-made spiced apple jelly) so I'm always trying new varieties looking for those with good flavor and substance as well as productivity. And the one constant for many years now has been Tetsukabuto. Thanks for the info. Will C. pepo pollinate Tetsukabuto? I didn't really plant a garden this year because of the weather (just 4 tomato plants, and a couple of rows of beans that the rabbit ravished), and I missed it. Starting to plan for next spring already. First thing in will be lots of chicken wire... And maybe a hawk or owl... Bob |
#6
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My new favorite winter squash
zxcvbob said:
Thanks for the info. Will C. pepo pollinate Tetsukabuto? No, it has to be one of the parent species. A good butternut or cheese type C. moschata is probably the best bet. They tend to have more color and cook up wetter than a kabocha, which makes them ideal for soups (butternut squash bisque...mmmm) and also nice for blending with a drier squash (like Testukabuto) when making baked goods. I didn't really plant a garden this year because of the weather (just 4 tomato plants, and a couple of rows of beans that the rabbit ravished), and I missed it. Starting to plan for next spring already. First thing in will be lots of chicken wire... And maybe a hawk or owl... We had a miserable spring here (both weather and health related). It was my absolute worst squash harvest EVER, because the plants just did not start growing in time to set a crop. The wet spring set up a summer of mosquitos. And of course, when it stopped raining, it REALLY stopped raining, for about a month. Then fall came damp and sullen--no Indian Summer--just rotten. *grumble* On the up side, I did not have to trap or slay any groundhogs this year. And no sign of anything other than mice in the garage. -- Pat in Plymouth MI "Yes, swooping is bad." email valid but not regularly monitored |
#7
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