shule1

I got a free Blue Doll F1 squash at a chili feed. It smelled and tasted awesome.

I haven't grown a lot of winter squash, yet, but I like Cucurbita ficifolia a lot. They say it can keep for years in storage. I tried it for over a year and then ate it. One of them went bad in storage at just under a year, but it wasn't in the best conditions. It's kind of like a rice noodle squash. It has white flesh inside and black seeds. You can use it in soups and it works well without giving you big chunks (they're like little noodles). It grows really fast in cool weather (which is very interesting for a squash, but heat slows it down until it cools again, in my one year of experience growing it). The seedlings grow really, really fast. The leaves are quite edible, and taste like a mix between spinach and green beans. Squash bugs didn't bother mine at all, but I didn't see any squash bugs at all that year. If they're not ripe when you harvest them, they do seem to ripen further in storage (over a long period of time); the seeds also seem to mature further.

I'm hoping I'll like some of the following winter squash, this year: Cushaw White, Black Futsu, and Upper Ground Sweet Potato. C. maxima squash had issues last year; so, I'm trying C. moschata and C. argyrosperma.