Topic: Spaghetti and kakai squashes

[JanG]

I’ve grown spaghetti squash for the first time this year. The fruit have lightened in colour and might well be ready for harvest.
Any tips for getting the spaghetti effect? Do they need curing and keeping for a while before cutting into?

I’m also wondering much the same about the kakai which I’ve grown in the hope of getting lots of seeds to put in my muesli!

[galina]

I don't know about the spaghetti squash, never grown, but the kakai might well benefit from a months curing in the sun after cutting to mature the seeds further.  The oil seed squashes you see on the fields in Austria are all cut very late.  You see them in the fields when the foliage has already frosted down.  I guess they need the most mature seeds for pressing for oil and for seed harvest. 

[saddad]

Spag squash don't need curing to make the stringy effect... we have eaten three already this season...

[JanG]

Thanks both. I’ll pick the spaghetti squash without delay then. How many do you expect to a plant? And do you use it just as you would spaghetti. Spag Bol etc?

My feeling was that the kakai needs to be left till the last possible moment before frost is expected but interesting that they are left in Austria even after the first frost. I guess many winter squash will survive a light frost but I wouldn’ t want to push it too far.

[saddad]

We just use the veg spaghetti as a side veg... with butter/pepper... very pleasant.

[galina]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbRtTHE0Rwo

There is always a Youtube video for any problem it seems, including spaghetti squash.  However I do  n o t  cut hard rinded squash like that.  I start off by stabbing a hole into the squash with a strong knife from above and then insert the knife into that hole and lever it like we used to with the very old fashioned tin openers.  Much safer, for me anyway. 

[Jeannine]

Hi Galina, I remember years ago asking oihn to break a huge squash for me,I intended to cut it into chunks and share it. I came home and it was done..I was impressed, then he told me had spent ages with a cleaver and a hammer..no good. and finally dropped it from the bedroom window onto the concrete..

[JanG]

Helpful video. Thanks.
I’d go for the stabbing with the point first too. My sister had a very serious finger chopping accident cutting into a squash I’d given her, so I’m extra anxiously careful now.
Think my low slung house doesn’t have a high enough window for the dropping technique. 🙁