winter squash harvest

staal and i harvested most of the winter squash yesterday morning.  there are still some out on the vines that are close but need a bit more ripening time and some of the plants are actually still blossoming and setting fruit.  i'm not sure if anything will come of the late-set fruits but i'm willing to give them a shot.  it's mid-september and we're still in the 90s so why not?

mature tromboncino marked for seed saving

i picked the acorn squash (there weren't many) a week or two ago as well as some of the sweet dumplings.

acorns

the neat thing about saving seed from winter squash is that you can save seed and still eat the squash---unlike beans where you have to choose between seed saving and eating.

sweet dumpling

these little guys are a decent size for a single serving.

sweet dumplings are a fairly dry-fleshed squash (i like a nice dry, flavorful squash) with good flavor.  i cooked up a couple for dinner about a week ago---quite eatable.

i put the squashes on shelves in the "greenhouse" (i hope to be able to relieve that term of it's quotations in the near future) for curing and storing.  the sweet dumplings and the acorns are good to eat pretty much off the vine but the other varieties need a curing period of 1-2 months to really develop full flavor.  
*a note on curing*  i'm already starting to see winter squash for sale at the store and if i hadn't grown a bunch i'd be tempted to buy some---i've noticed in the past when i've gotten winter squash at this time of year from the store the flavor is a bit disappointing but the ones i've gotten a few months after that taste much better.  their earliness in the market suggests they have not had time to cure and develop good flavor.

they're beautiful---the hard part will be waiting.  in the meantime i'll be keeping busy getting the fall garden going, stockpiling the kerrygold, and looking forward to some serious winter dining.

sweet dumplings and two varieties of kabocha