Butternut squash

by **Rosamunda** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 4:18 pm

For those of you who grow your own, I thought you might be interested to see my butternut squash:

I think I bought the seeds from Plantagen or Bauhaus, they were Weibull's Butternut Harrier F1.

http://www.plantigo.se/vintersquash-but ... rier+F1+vi

I started them indoors in early April and potted them on on 18th April. Then put them outdoors (at the mökki in Raasepori) under fleece in May (can't remember the date). Removed the fleece in June, the bees did the rest, I just kept the weeds down and watered them when it didn't rain (quite often). In late August I started removing the new flowers and the shoots (to stop them spreading and producing too much fruit). A few weeks ago I tore off most of the leaves so the fruits could get more sun.

I picked the first few about two weeks ago and brought them indoors to ripen off. Yesterday I picked the rest because the deer had found them. I had maybe 40 squash from a dozen plants, maybe more.

Baked the first one this morning, about one hour in the oven at 180C. It tastes really buttery and nutty - lots of flavour. Will definitely grow some more next year.

**Sponsor:**

by **Cory** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 8:09 pm

Great harvest! They are lovely! I baked a butternut squash for dinner tonight and drizzled on a little maple syrup. Yummy.

by **Rosamunda** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 9:09 pm

Yes, maple syrup goes well. I've mashed up the squash and we'll eat it tomorrow as "bangers and squash-mash" with some onion and mushroom gravy. I picked buckets of funnel chanterelles yesterday... we have spent most of today cleaning them, drying them, making soup. I could fill a bucket in about 15 minutes. Amazing. The rain and the frost have really brought them out. Never seen so many. And I even found a few of the golden yellow ones (in October??!?)

by **fatherchristmas** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 8:21 am

I suddenly have a craving for butternut soup

by **Cory** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:43 pm

penelope wrote:Yes, maple syrup goes well. I've mashed up the squash and we'll eat it tomorrow as "bangers and squash-mash" with some onion and mushroom gravy. I picked buckets of funnel chanterelles yesterday... we have spent most of today cleaning them, drying them, making soup. I could fill a bucket in about 15 minutes. Amazing. The rain and the frost have really brought them out. Never seen so many. And I even found a few of the golden yellow ones (in October??!?)

Yeah, would love to forage some more yellow-feet but have no more space, nor need, for more. The forest around us is full of 'shrooms still. We've found all kinds of different varieties of mushrooms this year in our yard, too. Weather's been ideal for them.

by **magenta22** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 2:22 pm

Great harvest there, our's didn't really grow this year.