Growing Winter Squash & Pumpkins

  

Squash is one of my favourite vegetables from the garden. This also includes the sweet pumpkins, which are in the same family. It is so versatile and so good for you! It can be boiled, baked, sliced for the BBQ, grilled, baked in a pie for dessert and made into delicious soup. It can also be eaten with lots of real butter and a drop of maple syrup for a side vegetable dish.

I took an interest in the various different types of squash this year and planted five different kinds of winter squash. Having grown only hubbard, acorn and buttercup in the past, I was astounded at all the types of winter squash available out there. Some have long growing seasons and may not do well up here, but most of them look like they will produce well enough if started early indoors and given lots of hot, sunny weather. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the hot, sunny weather this year, but I think we will have plenty of squash, nonetheless.

In the actual vegetable garden, I planted hubbard, ambercup (a golden buttercup type), butternut and nutty delicata. I have never grown the nutty delica squash before, but I thought it sounded good. I love nuts and this is suppose to have a “nutty” flavour. It is a relatively new Japanese ebisu hybrid type. I have not previously grown butternut, either, although I have eaten it and seen it in the stores.

I planted acorn squash in the back field on the fence. Only two of those came up but I grew a very large acorn squash plant in the front flowerbed. It was an accidental dropping of the seed in the wrong place, but that bed was new and needed some greenery anyway, so I left it there. 

It took over a large part and is producing extremely well, much better than the same seed grown on the back fence. I think that is due to the extra chicken manure dug into the flower beds. It looked nice there too with the large golden blossoms and huge green leaves. I may consider doing that again next year. Is that what is referred to as a “Potager Garden” – vegetables mixed in with the flowers? I like it. It had four little squash on it until yesterday. I accidentally left the gate open and the chickens got into the front yard. They ate three of the little squash. I managed to cover the other one up with a bucket for the rest of the evening. They had not found it yet. The vegetable garden has a fence around it to keep out the groundhogs that live under the garage, so the chickens cannot get in there.

In my search for squash types, I found one in particular that interested me. It was the Hopi pale gray winter squash. I came across a reference to it as being an especially good “keeper”. These squash are an heirloom variety originally grown by the Hopi indians but have almost dissappeared. When I tried to find a source, I was dissappointed. The Hopi squash are very difficult to acquire. I did manage to get some seeds, in a trade from this year, 2009, for both the Hopi pale gray and the Hopi black squash, to grow for next year. Since they are from more southern regions I will start them very early next spring on a heating source. I am excited about growing these next year to test for the perfect squash and as a source of rare seed.

All of my winter squash plants have small squash growing on them, except for the butternut. The first female butternut flower opened this morning. I hand pollinated it. Even the long seasoned hubbard has small squash growing. We have had exceptionally cool weather this year. I don’t know why there is a difference. 

Perhaps the butternut need more heat? They are all in the same bed and have received the same treatment. I planted the butternut because I read that they were good producers, making a lot of squash on one plant. We will see how it goes…

I am looking for the perfect squash. One that is not stringy, keeps all year and has a fabulous, sweet and nutty taste. Is there such a thing?

Squash like to be grown in very light, loose soil so the roots are well aerated. They are nutrient hogs and like a lot of water, without being waterlogged (see previous sentence). I dug chicken manure into the hills where I planted the squash and I have occasionally fed them with organic commerical transplant fertilizer with a high phosphorus content, that I bought at a garage sale. Avoid using a high nitrogen fertilizer as this causes lots of leaves and few squash.

Squash, pumpkins and gourds are all from the same general family and all depend on bees for their pollination, so a small and dwindling bee population causes a poor harvest. (What will we do when there are no more bees?? ) Last year I had a lot of flowers and very few squash, signalling poor pollination. I am hand pollinating my squash this year and it has made a difference. All of the female flowers that opened were hand pollinated and are now growing small squash. This is exicing and so rewarding! I did that myself! It can be frustrating when the male flowers are plentiful and the female flowers have not opened yet.

Male Squash/Pumpkin Flower

The male flowers open first in the center of the vine. The female flowers are located further along the central vine and on the lateral branches. The male flowers are on taller stalks while the female flowers sit tighter against the branch on a little ball which, if pollinated, will be the growing squash.

 

Female Squash/Pumpkin Flower

To pollinate the female flowers you will need to use a small paintbrush. Just rub the paintbrush against the pollen in the male flower and then paint the pollen onto the center of the female flower. You can also pick the male flower, remove all but the pollen sitck and rub it against the center of the female flower. I prefer to use a paintbrush and leave the male flower growing where it is, to be used again later unless there are plenty of open male flowers.

There are many rare and delicious winter squash out there, yet to be discovered. Some are heirloom varieties that have been grown for centures in North America and have just slowly been replaced with the modern hybrids and genetically modified versions. One of the main reasons for that is the patenting of hybrid and genetically modified (GM) seed. Seeds from vegetables grown from patented seed cannot legally be saved by the grower for the following year. The farmer legally must repurchase these seeds each spring. Natural and heirloom seeds cannot be patented and so, there is no money in selling them. Large seed companies, such as Monsanto, sell only genetically modified and patented seed. The old fashioned heirloom varieties are slowing dissappearing. The gene pool is shrinking and we are losing valuable material. Not necessarily inferior material either!

We really enjoyed the little acorn squash last year, baked with maple syrup, raisins and dried cranberries and I know that hubbard and buttercup both make excellent pies. Some softer skinned buttercup varieties of squash do not keep very long, however, so they need to be cooked and frozen shortly after harvesting. I have read that the delica squash are not good keepers, either, so we will cook and freeze those when they are ready.

I have collected a selection of squash recipes that we have found to be delicious and have made many times. Winter squash and sweet pumpkin are interchangeable in any recipe, since they are the same thing. Pumpkin and squash are both members of the gourd family. No canned pumpkin will ever taste as good as the homegrown vegetable.

Hand Pollinating Squash & Recipes

My own squash harvest this year

Its that time again. The squash plants are blooming! Time to get out the tape and bright ribbon and start pollinating by hand! I love growing squash! I am obsessed with squash like other gardeners are obsessed with tomatoes! Since bees are the only insect that pollinate squash, I started doing the job myself in recent years. It has made a big difference in the number of squash produced. If you usually get a lot of flowers and very few fruits, you may have a pollination problem. Hand pollinating is so easy and its fun! (I think its fun anyway. You may look at it as a lot of work.)

Squash/pumpkin plants, unlike a lot of other vegetables and ornamentals, have both male and female blossoms. The male and female blossoms are very easy to tell apart.

The female blossoms have a receptacle to receive the pollen. This is a female squash/pumpkin blossom:

The male blossom has a small stick covered with pollen. This is a male squash/pumpkin blossom:

The male blossoms grow on a tall stalk, usually towards the center of the plant. These are usually blooming before the female blossoms. The female blossoms don't usually grow until the weather is warm enough. 

As you can probably guess, the object here is to get the pollen from the male blossom into the receptacle of the female blossom. Easy!

At first I used a paintbrush or a finger to capture the pollen and transport it, but shortly discarded that method. Its not necessary. There are usually several male flowers open for every female, so I just pick a male flower, remove the petals and rub the pollen against the female receptacle. You can use one male flower to pollinate 2-3 female flowers, if necessary.

Occasionally there will be a few female flowers open early without any male open to pollinate them. This can be frustrating! That happened to me this year. There were two female ambercup squash flowers open early and no males yet. I pollinated these with male blossoms from a buttercup squash plant nearby. They are both maxima so I know they will cross pollinate. Most of the squash I grow are maxima.

I do want pure seed to save for next year but I knew there would be a lot more squash blossoms coming later. More than enough to ensure pure seed for next year.

It is important, when pollinating for pure seed, to pollinate the blossoms as soon as they open, very early in the morning of their first day before they are likely to be pollinated by a bee. I went out at dawn a few days later, my usual time, and found several female flowers just opening. Perfect!

I pollinated these with pollen from a just opening male flower of the same type and taped the blossom shut with masking tape. You can see the little bulb at the base of the female blossom.

This is a buttercup female blossom just opened this morning, pollinated and taped shut to prevent further contamination from bees with pollen from other maxima squash growing nearby. Cross pollinating squash plants won’t affect this year’s produce at all, but it will mix up what you get from the seeds the following year.

I occasionally go out in the early evening and tape shut any female and male blossoms that I think will open for the first time the following morning. This will prevent any pollination before I get to them.

I marked the hand pollinated ones with a bright pink ribbon so that I will know it is a “seed” squash when it is harvested. Anything that will last through the summer and into the fall and still be recognizable will do. It doesn’t have to be pink! Trail marker ribbon works great! When fall comes I will leave these ones on the vine as long as possible to ensure ripeness. The squash grown for seed will need to be very ripe to get the best developed and driest seed. These will sit in the field in the sun long after the vines have died from frost. Then they will be brought inside and put in the basement to age at least another month before being cut open and used.

This year (2014) I have growing: 12 hills of ambercup and 10 hills of turban buttercup with 3-4 plants per hill of each, 3 pink banana squash plants, 1 spaghetti squash plant, 1 “upper ground sweet potato” squash plant, 2 “sweet mama” squash plants, 3 Hopi black squash plants, approx 4 Hopi gray squash plants and 2 acorn squash plants. Most of the ones I grew this year, except the acorn, are maxima, so cross pollinating would be a problem if done naturally.

I saved a bag full of good dry seed from the giant blue hubbard I grew last year but decided not to grow it again. Its not as sweet as the ambercup, which is delicious, but it is, nevertheless, a tasty dry squash. The hubbards are also more work to process and have to be cut with the axe, or a very sturdy knife and a hammer. I didn’t need another variety this year, so I left it out.

I planted the Hopi squash mainly for seed, although I have read that the gray is one of the best keepers out there. These Hopi squash were the original ones used for the “three sisters” system originating with the Hopi Indians. When I looked into growing them a few years ago the seed was almost impossible to find. I did manage to find one lady who sent me some in a trade and I have kept them until this year. I had my doubts that they would germinate after three years, but they did! They were slow to germinate and I am not sure they will have time to produce mature fruit this year, but I have high hopes! I do so want those seed to preserve and sell next year! We are losing so many good heritage varieties of all our vegetables!

I like to putter in the garden. I often just walk around and look and putter when I am relaxing. This is when I do the pollinating of squash blossoms, tying up and de-suckering the tomatoes, lifting up the stray cucumber vines and so forth – the little things. I keep everything I need in a little basket with a handle and take it out with me on all of my walks. I don’t take the hoe!

Every part of the squash plant can be eaten, including the leaves and tender shoots.

I plan to cut off the side shoots when it gets too late for the plant to grow squash that will ripen in time. These tender shoots are going into soups and stews. I want to try them chopped in omelets this year. The young leaves can be picked now and used as wraps around some meaty concoction, much like a grape leaf can. We have lots of wild grapes too. I think I’ll experiment this summer with leaf wraps!

I have collected a selection of squash recipes that we have found to be delicious and have made many times. Winter squash and sweet pumpkin are interchangeable in any recipe, since they are the same thing. No canned pumpkin will ever taste as good as the home grown vegetable.

*Note: All spices are dried and ground. If you wish to use fresh, you will need to research the amount.

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Squash Pie

1 1/2 cup squash, cooked, mashed and unseasoned
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
2 teaspoon all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon mace
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Mix all dry ingredients together. Add squash. Beat eggs in another bowl and add milk to eggs, then add to squash mixture. Pour into an unbaked pastry lined pan. Bake at 350F until firm in center, about 1 hour.

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Squash Loaf

3 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2/3 cup water
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon allspice or 1/2 tsp mace
1 cup oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 1/2 cup squash, cooked, mashed and unseasoned
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat oven to 350F, grease 3 loaf pans. Mix sugar, oil and eggs. Add squash. Sift together all dry ingredients and add to squash mixture. Add water and pour into pans. Bake 1 hour.

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Squash Soup

2 pounds uncooked squash
1.5 pints of stock, chicken or vegetable (can be made with bouillon)
1 medium onion, diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
Cream to add before serving, amount is optional
Salt and pepper to taste.
Sprinkle of nutmeg or cinnamon, optional

In a large saucepan, slice and saute the garlic and onion in oil or butter until tender. Add squash, stock, nutmeg or cinnamon, salt and pepper. Boil and cook for 25 minutes until squash is tender. Puree mixture with a blender until smooth and return to saucepan. Before serving, add cream and gently heat. Do not boil.

*Stock amount can be changed, depending on how thick or thin you want your soup.

**Add thick applesauce for a special taste treat.

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Squash Muffins

1 cup squash, cooked and mashed
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon mace

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin tin or use papers. Mix together squash, eggs, oil and corn syrup in large bowl. Stir until well mixed. Stir all other dry ingredients together in smaller bowl. Add dry ingredients to squash mixture. Fill greased tins to the top. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until lightly brown on top.

* Very good with raisins added, add raisins to batter if desired.

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Squash Dessert Squares

1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups squash, cooked, mashed and unseasoned
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease square pan. Beat together shortening, brown sugar and white sugar until light. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in squash. Combine dry ingredients and gradually stir into beaten mixture. Spread in greased pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool in pan. Spread with orange icing (optional). Cut into bars.

The Perfect Squash

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I like to grow squash, lots of squash. Over the past couple of years I have grown many different kinds in search of the perfect squash. Well, I think I have found it!



This is the Hopi Black squash. It's very large! I know it's not black now, but it is black when it's young, as it is in this picture.











It is as large as a big hubbard, but the skin is easier to peel and can be cut with a knife, as opposed to an axe. I have to use an axe or a hammer to cut into a hubbard squash.


The Hopi Black squash is very sweet, dense and delicious with a small seed cavity.


The meat is a much darker orange than any squash I have seen. There's a big difference in the colour. Does this mean it has more beta carrotene? I wish I could find more information on that!


This is a very old, rare and hard to find heirloom squash. It was grown by the Hopi Indians generations ago. It produced as much cooked and finished squash for the freezer as I got from 4-5 small ambercups.

This will be the only squash I grow for our family in the future. It's very large, meaty, soft skinned, sweet, delicious and easy to grow. It does have a long growing season so I will start them early indoors, but that's fun anyway.

Squash Harvest

Yes, this is my picture above. It is a picture of the squash we harvested today! After a summer of carefully tending the squash, we picked them all today. They will need to age in a warm and dry place for about a month before we cut into one, but we're ok with that.

Squash can be left to age in the field in the sun, after frost has taken the leaves. I think they cure faster this way than in the house as long as you get them inside before the very hard frost damages the rind. You can tell when a squash is ready to be picked by the curlycue nearby. If they have begun to shrivel and turn brown then it is ready to pick but still needs to be cured. You can also tell by the stem. If it is turning brown and no longer green, then the squash is ready. We just picked them all before the frost. The slightly immature ones will not grow any bigger but they will ripen over the winter, off the vine. We had to leave a few babies behind but we had a lot of good squash anyway.

The very large light blue ones are hubbard. Those have to be cut with an axe, but produce the most lovely, sweet, not stringly squash. The long ones with the bulb at the end are the butternut. Those are best for making squash soup, or so I hear. I have never grown butternut before and have used the buttercup and hubbard for everything. The orange ones are ambercup, a buttercup of a different colour. The green ones are nutty delica. I have never grown or eaten delica squash before. They are a Japanese Ebisu hybred that are suppose to have a nutty flavour. We will see.

They are aging for now, but when we do cut a few open, we will judge for ourselves which ones we like the best.

Next year I will also grow Hopi pale gray and Hopi black squash.

I grew acorn squash in the back pasture this year, but have not checked on them yet. I believe there was only one that sprouted. I will have to see if there are any acorn squash very soon.

I have seed to try many other types next year, but we will always grow hubbard.