Topic: Palustris and the gourds ...

[Admin aka Dan]

Palustris,

Sorry for the delay, but if I may say what a fine collection !

[ina]

oooooooooh wauw! So colorful. They ask good money for things like that at the garden centers in Holland.
Just last week we ate one of those bottle pumpkins (second from the right), given to us by another allotmenteer. We made curry from a third and soup from the rest, it was wonderful. -Ina

[Beer_Belly]

Whilst we're on the subject - here are mine : (all soup now)

[minerva]

Dear Beer_Belly, what sort of pumpkins are those they are sooooo pretty, must grow more squash next year and i fancy some of them
sam

[Beer_Belly]

Minerva - I'm sorry I have no idea, the old Dutch bloke whom I'm taking over from planted them - he even told me he thought they weren't edible but I disproved that :-)

[Colin_Bellamy-Wood]

Eric and BB, what marvelous gourds, I congratulate you on your successes.

Did you watch "The Day Team" on BBC1 10am till 11am which this week is visiting Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.   On item this morning was a little girl of 6 years who grew her own pumpkins, and dumfounded the local Show by growing the biggest again.   The pumpkin weighed in at 99 kgs - that's heavier than me - and was bigger than the little girl.

[Palustris]

Ok first of all thank-you to Dan.
Starting top left Gold Nugget, below that is unknown seed bought a Blue Kurri, but obviously not. Below that is another Gold Nugget. Middle top is Delicata, centre is a Vegetable Spaghetti and Delicata underneath. The bottle shaped one is Butternut Sprinter and the dark green is Buttercup.
BB's look very much like Uchiki Kuri otherwise knowbn as Onion squash.
Sadly the very big pumpkins often have very little flesh inside.
Our favourite is Buttercup, very dry and nutty, rather like chestnut stuffing,  Morrocan Pumpkin Couscous with a prune and onion confit, hmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

[Palustris]

My fungers are all thimbs tonigth.

[teresa]

Oh Eric+ BB
They are lovely must have a go my self this comming year something different never tried them before.
Whats your tips ;)
Teresa

[Tenuse]

Can you grow Butternut squashes outside like you can pumpkins?

Ten x

[ina]

Oh you guys, I just love being able to see what other allotmenteers are growing. Just wait for spring and summer and we can all show-off here.
Such wonderful pictures, thank you both for putting them here.
The added bonus for me is that I can learn the English names for things. Now I finally know what the butternut is, I knew it only by the name of 'fles pompoen' (bottle pumpkin).
I once grew the spaghetti thing but found it no good eating, too mushy for me. -Ina

[john_miller]

After many attempts to view the pictures by re-booting it finally worked! The squash that Palustris and Beer Belly haven't been able to identify are Red Kuri. Another excellent tasting squash- in my conditions they produce a slightly spicy tingling on the tongue. That may be heat related so I don't know if you would get that in the UK.
FYI Eric:- I noticed somewhere that you said that Buttercup is your favourite squash. There is a new cultivar called Honey Delight that is slightly sweeter (sweetness is an American obsession) that you may wish to source.
Now I will try to see if Tim's garden pictures come up (his Pink Fir potatoes ones did but his garden pictures didn't, I didn't understand that).

[john_miller]

Oops. In my excitement at getting the pictures to come up I missed Eric identifying B.B.'s squash. Apologies to Eric. I would suspect that your 'Blue' Kuri is an orange one with slightly different genes to B.B.'s. This could illustrate the variability that is inherent with all these squashes being so closely related to each other (all are selections of Cucurbita pepo ) which increases the chances of "out-typing". Alternatively, it can also be viewed as an illustration of our wanting arbitary classifications for all things natural when nature isn't interested in obliging.

[tim]

John - the photos are back - after a lot of time and mental agility!

And, talking of squashes, this is the one we're 'souping' tonight - Tim

[john_miller]

Carnival, Tim? At least on this side of the pond. Now B.B.'s picture (that really is a good picture imho) has gone but Erics is still there (stranger and stranger methinks).
A well tended plot Tim. Those potatoes look so uniform they could be plastic!

[tim]

one last fling!

.................Tim

[ina]

Pretty as a picture! -Ina

[Palustris]

Oh, very smart.  ;D
John, we looked at all the Seed lists and Honey Delight does not seem to be available here in Britain. Not overly fond of very sweet vegetables. An American friend once made us a Pumpkin pie (like my Mom used to do in the Good ol' USof A (cannot do the accent though)). I had prickly heat for a week with the sweetness of it. Mind you the American breakfast rolls she made. mmmmmmmmm hot and with loads of butter.ooooooooh.  
Have tried a squash whose name I forget, Prince or something but the skin colour is pale blue?