Winter Squash Adventure

 This year in my garden, I decided to plant some winter squashes.  I love squash of all kinds.  I tried growing Acorn squash a few years ago, but grew them in a container and never got anything from the plant.

This year, I decided to again try my hand at some winter squash.  While searching for just the right addition to my limited garden space, my mouth kept watering at all the wonderful prospects.  Acorn, Buttercup, Spaghetti, Turk's turban, Delicata: Hubbard, Candy Rooster, the list goes on and on.  I could even smell them baking, with a touch of cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of brown sugar.  O yummy squash soup.  Ummmm!  Okay, back to reality.  So, I settled on two, Queensland Blue (Cucurbita pepo) and Lakota (Cucurbita maxima).  Both are heirloom varieties.  (I am a big advocate for heirloom vegetables)

The Queensland Blue was developed in Australia and brought to the United States in 1932.  It is a light grayish-blue color, slightly flattened and ribbed and usually weight around 8 lbs.  It has a mild tasting orange flesh and stores up to 6 months.

The  Lakota can trace its ancestry back to the Lakota Sioux tribes from North & South Dakota.  They can be a tear drop shape or round, and range in color from orange to being mottled with green stripes from the bottom.  The flesh is fine grained and has a sweet, nutty flavor.  Fruits weight between 5 to 11 lbs. Prolific producer and stores well.  I have read nothing but good things about this squash and cannot wait until mine are here.

In my winter squash planting venture this year, I learned something about the plants that I never knew before.  To the right are two photos of my Queensland Blue plants.  Beautiful, right?!  Anyway, every time I looked at them, I wondered how the leaves at the end of the long trailing vines could look so much better than the spot where I originally put them in the ground.  After all, the water and nutrients had to get all the way to the end.  Nooo.  I found this out when I moved a vine out of the grass and back in the boundaries of the garden area.  At the joints of the plant, where the flower and the little "curlies" reach out to hold on, from the bottom side, a root will grow down into the soil and then micro roots will shoot off it once it is below the surface of the soil.  You can see them in the bottom picture if you look past the curly.  Nature amazes me every day.  So, if you are new to this like I was, be sure your squash vines are going where you want them, or you could damage them if you try to move them at a later time. 

Tiny Orbs of Yumm-e!

In my desire to find different varieties of tomatoes, I came across a packet of a mixed variety of cherry tomatoes in my local hardware store.  Boy did that bring out the little kid in me!  I flash forwarded to a summer of beautiful tomato plants full of tiny orbs to fill my salad bowl. That is if they even make it into the house.  I have a habit of just popping them in my mouth right off the vine.  Last year I grew Yellow Pear tomatoes and would recommend them to anyone who likes tomatoes.  The grew like crazy and just three plants kept me happy all summer. 

Now this new pack of seeds contained seven varieties of cherry tomatoes and they were color coded so you knew which seed was from each variety.  The variates were Sundrop, Gold Nugget, Brown Cherry, Sweetie, Green Grape, Super Snow White, and Bicolor Cherry.

I started my little lovelies indoors, right on my desk where I could look at them each day.  I used an egg carton and used the shells as the "pots".  Growth was excellent and I put them outside in a sheltered place to "harden" them.  Unfortunately,  they got wind burned and I lost half of them.  The varieties that survived were Snow White, Gold Nugget and the Brown Cherry.  They are all delicious.  I also grew the Yellow Pear again this year and they have not let me down.  It is nice to be able to add sliced tomatoes to a meal right out of my own garden.