Showing posts with label growing squash in the South. Show all posts
Showing posts with label growing squash in the South. Show all posts

Thursday, 13 August 2015

Immature butternut squash

Hmm, I'm thinking my butternut squash experiment is a winner.  I don't have room for regular butternut squash vines to ramble all over the garden, nor do I have room to store mature butternuts through the winter.  I've been musing about squash growing for ages.

My friend who has a large kitchen garden on her property out of town has already harvested over 80 mature butternuts -- she started early in the season.  That's a LOT of squash for the two of them to eat, even if pies are part of the equation....Maybe I'll get some of the "extra!"

But I've been growing a miniature climbing butternut from Renee's Garden.  It's a new release and is attractive on a low trellis in front of the garden.

I was thinking that it might be tasty green (as well as being resistant to squash vine borers, the nemesis of Southern summer squash growers).  My experience with summer squash is 3 or 4 squash, and then the vines collapse (at least without row covers, Bt, foil, picking out the borers, etc.).

immature miniature butternut squash (with blueberries for scale)
And what a lovely alternative these immature butternuts have proved to be.  They're not zucchini or yellow squash, to be sure, but have a delightful dense texture and faint butternut flavor when harvested green.  Delicious sauteed with onions, mushrooms, and garlic, or flash-roasted.

Even when they're bigger (having escaped the gardener's notice) -- at about 4 inches long (close to their "mature" size, any way, instead of 2 inches (like these), they're delicious, too.