Lemon Squash

Pattypan type squash are my favorite.  Patisson Golden Marbre Scallop is my favorite pattypan variety.  They're the beautiful scallop shaped squashes.   I love them.   They have a denser texture than crookneck or regular zucchini.   I slice and steam them and eat all my favorite pasta sauces on them instead of pasta.    They're also good sauteed with garlic and butter.   [But then, so is everything.]

This year I added a new pattypan type squash to our garden lineup -Lemon Squash.    I grew them with seed that I got from Baker Creek. They're big, tough plants that survive squash bugs and vine borers.  Baker Creek says they have "huge yields and the best resistance to insects I have seen in a summer squash."  I was hoping that meant that the bugs wouldn't bother them, but both the vine borers and the squash bugs did go after them.   However, the plants are doing fine and producing well.  So I guess that 'best resistance' means that even if they are attacked by both [as mine are this year], the plants will live on and produce.   I heart that!

Here's a pic of both male [right] and female [left] flowers.   If you click on it, it will blow up so you can get a closer look at the difference between them.

Another way to tell the difference is just to look at the base of the flower.    The female flowers have baby squash at their bases.  

See the bigger baby squash at the top left of the pic?  The blossom is still on it.   It'll be ready to eat in a few days.  Now look at all the tiny ones, lower down on the vine.   Their blossoms haven't opened yet.

But they will!   And I'll be waiting with butter, garlic, skillet and fork in hand.