Winter Squash Roundup 2013: Part 3

This is the squash class of 2013.   Back row:  Musquee de Provence [3].
Middle:  Honeyboat delicata [4], Queensland Blue [1], Greek Sweet Red [1]
Right side:  Rampicante [2]
Front:  Black Futsu [3, pink with the blue cast], Tiny Whites, Australian Butter [1]

I love that the rampicante squash look like long necked birds.   They can harvested green, like summer squash, and which encourages lots of new squash, or you can wait until they turn beige.   They're orange inside then and are an excellent winter squash.   We like them that way. 

Here's the Australian Butter.   The vine succumbed early to vine borers and it didn't seem to like the cool wet weather we had early in the  summer.   I did manage to get this one though.   I think that under the right conditions, these would be good bearers and get much bigger.   I'll try them again.

This is a Greek Sweet Red.  I've grown them before and really like that they put on a late summer push.   I can get several new squash in September and October.   They're dense and delicious.  One of my favorites. 

How was your squash production this year?

Zucchino Rampicante

One of the most fun and delicious squash we grow is the zucchino rampicante.   The two on the right are fully mature.  The one on the left is still a bit green.  They are big - almost the size of your arms if you hold them out and pretend you're holding a ball in front of you.

Rampicante is an Italian curly squash.  Aside from their way cool shapes, these guys are amazing in that you can eat them at any stage of growth from blossom to little green baby squash, to beige and fully ripe.    They are a combination summer/winter squash.

Pick them green and cook them like summer squash.

Pick them ripe and cook them like winter squash.    They have a delicious orange flesh that is wonderful sliced and baked.  

The seeds are in the bulb at the bottom.

To prepare them when they're fully ripe, peel it all with a vegetable peeler and slice the skinny part into rounds.   Cut the bulb off, open it, take out the seeds and slice it up.  Bake it until soft.

It's really delicious baked with some of the glazes I talked about last week.