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.

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A robust tromboncino squash (and other squash musings)

An exuberant squash patch

I've been growing tromboncino squash for many years as an alternative to summer squash, which always seem to succumb to squash vine borers both in the Piedmont and in the mountains.  Not to mention squash bugs.

The C. moschata varieties (which include tromboncino) are somewhat hairy, and resistant to the moth that lays the eggs that become the squash vine borers (its larvae).

I even resorted this year (in my front beds) to growing butternuts (in addition to the tromboncino and another Mexican variety - Tatume) as an experiment.  I don't have room for butternuts to mature, for sure, but I thought, hmm, why not see what they taste like as immature squash?

They're not bad -- a interesting rich flavor compared to "normal" summer squash, with a dense texture to match.  I've been harvesting them at about 3 inches long.

But I've been amazed at how robust my squash plantings have been, both above and below in the raised beds.  The lower bed (in the picture) is amazing -- I was quite sure the local woodchuck would nibble the seedlings to nubbins, but they got beyond that size, and quickly attained a large tough quality (presumably) that wasn't appealing. (I've had them mow down young squash seedlings in the past).

So (thanks to a combination of planting late and circumstance), my squash vines look great -- we'll see if they produce (the lower bed is starting to flower now, but looks a bit nitrogen-rich, thanks to plentiful mushroom compost in the spring!)

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