Tastes of different Winter Squash

[chriscross1966]

The only ones I've had problems with (starting to go near the peduncle) have been the butternuts.... but they were lifted ahead of a frost warning and IMHO neede another couple of weeks.... but it was October... Winter festival still good, as are the two Uchiki Kuri and the sole remaining Bon-bon and un-named pumpkin....

chrisc

[chriscross1966]

[realfood]

I had to eat my one and only Cornell's Bush Delicata, as the skin had started to break down.
A wonderful aroma while being microwaved, quite different from other squashes, filled the whole house for hours! The taste was sweet and flavoursome but not a lot of flesh which was dry. Not as good as BonBon in my opinion, and was more difficult to get to set fruit.

[grannyjanny]

Has anyone tried musque de provence. I bought a slice recently & it was lovely.

[GrannieAnnie]

The only ones I've had problems with (starting to go near the peduncle) have been the butternuts.... but they were lifted ahead of a frost warning and IMHO neede another couple of weeks.... but it was October... Winter festival still good, as are the two Uchiki Kuri and the sole remaining Bon-bon and un-named pumpkin....

chrisc

Our butternuts (5 left) are still hanging in the basement without any problems that I can detect. I'd washed them all down with dilute bleach before hanging to deter mold. Have you tried that?
Some of these were picked with slightly green stem and some faint green stripes due to frost warning. I was wondering how long those would last before rotting but so far so good.

[1066]

I had to eat my one and only Cornell's Bush Delicata, as the skin had started to break down.
....... and was more difficult to get to set fruit.

I tried growing this last year and didn't get any fruits, hoping for better success this year. But thanks for the description! (And nice to know of someone who was successful)

1066

[1066]

Has anyone tried musque de provence. I bought a slice recently & it was lovely.

delicious isn't it! I'm growing it for the 1st time year, so will find out what home grown versions taste like  :)

[realfood]

Today, the last of my Bonbon squashes had to be eaten, and I was able to do a direct taste comparison with the remains of my delicata squash.
The delicata was good but Bonbon had a more intense flavour as well as being sweeter, drier and easier to grow in the North of the UK.

[manicscousers]

lost another red kuri today, ate a couple of hooligan, very sweet and no problem with them at the moment  :)

[antipodes]

which of the Australian blues would do well in the UK, south-east, if any?  Thanks.

Here in Britanny I grew Queensland Blue last year and got several well sized fruit. The taste is so yummy, not too sweet, nutty and tender non-stringy flesh.

[1066]

I'd 2nd antipodes on the Queensland Blue, and also add in Crown Prince. Both did well for me in the SE and both have stored well, and as antipodes said tasty but not stringy  :)

[realfood]

I was just writing up the results of my last year's Winter squash trial results when I noticed that Fairy F1 squash is actually in the Cucurbita Moschata family. That is the same family as Butternuts, rather than the other Winter squash which are derived from Cucurbita Maxima or Cucurbita Pepo.
If that is the case, then Fairy is easier to grow than the other butternuts that I trialled in Glasgow.

[chriscross1966]

There are several other moschata, even from the neck group that are easier than butternuts ... have a look for Squash64's lunga di Napoli and Tromba di Albengo.... The Lunga espcially, she had one last year that outweighed all my butternuts put together, other moschata you might try would be Musquee de Provence, Sucrine de Berry and Futtsu Black. I mention these cos I saw them all go through the squash seed swap I organised

chrisc

[realfood]

Thanks for that information, Chrisc. There is a slight problem for growing Musquee de Provence and Futsu black in Scotland, as they take longer to reach maturity.
This week, I have carried out another taste test using the remains of my last BonBon, and last Blue Ballet and the remains of the Delicata.
As expected, Bonbon had most sweetness and depth of flavour. Blue Ballet had medium sweetness and good depth of flavour( this sample much better than my previous blue ballet). Delicata had not as much of either sweetness or taste.
It is only by tasting them on the plate at the same time that you can rate them.

[chriscross1966]

I'm going to try putting mine under fleece for their first week or two outdoors this year, all of my squash plants (especially the butternuts) sulked for a month after planting last year and it wasn't like June was that bad....

In Scotland I'd guess you might need to do the same for a bit longer.... but even so I guess some of the long season squashes will be a struggle.

chrisc

[Wilder]

My head is spinning reading this thread. I really want to grow wintersquash for the first time and from all your description I think Crown prince sounds like a good match. Maybe I'll put a thread for a swap.

[chriscross1966]

My head is spinning reading this thread. I really want to grow wintersquash for the first time and from all your description I think Crown prince sounds like a good match. Maybe I'll put a thread for a swap.

I'd recommend Winter Festival as a good choice for a first-time grower. The plants are fairly well behaved, they flower and set prolifically and early, the fruits aren't too huge so coping with them in the kitchen is easy, they ripen early so no worries about extra ripening off the plant after harvest, they taste good too.... and they're quite pretty fruit too. Seeds are easily available.

chrisc

[Tulipa]

Wilder and Chris,

I grow both Crown Prince and Winter Festival and find they are the best combination.  CP are very big and need a couple of meals planning round them, and Winter Festival compliment them by their small size if you only need a small amount of squash, they both keep very well, my Festival are just beginning to show signs of needing eating up, and CP I haven't even started eating yet.  Both have good flavour for roasting or soup.  If space is at a premium then Festival take up a bit less and can be trained more easily.  Wilder they are fascinating to grow and quite addictive!!

T.

[Wilder]

excellent feedback guys, thanks.

I've now got the fourth bed almost finished, (all that bare soil!!) I'm just itching to plant. Will cover with something to keep it warm and weed-free and dream of squashes. I adore eating squash and just this week bought a lovely Butternut Cuchina (sp?) in Sainsbury's that tasted wonderful.

[1066]

I have some Winter Festival to try this year, so looking forward to them - are they a trailing type? i.e. could I grow them up a trellis?

[chriscross1966]

You could try to get a crop of broad beans through there, or early peas, plant them gap[s in the planting so the squashes can go in at 3-4 foot spacing..... if it doesn't work out then at least it was agreen manure.....

chrisc