With more rainy weather in the forecast, I decided to harvest my squash crop yesterday. Today is a miserable, drizzly day, so it’s just as well I gathered in the squash.
I grew these squash from seedlings that I purchased at the local nursery in the spring. The vines spent the summer gambolling about the tomato plants, in and out and over. Just on a whim, I purchased some small decorative gourds and these little rascals outperformed all the other vines. They were everywhere! I got a good crop of wee gourds, but apart from Thanksgiving Day table decorations, I’m not sure what to do with them.
There’s a good sampling of vegetable spaghetti squash and acorn squash, but certainly the stars of the crop are the two mammoth hubbard squash. I’ve never grown hubbard squash before and I was quite enchanted with them when I discovered these two blue giants hidden under squash leaves.
I set the larger hubbard on my bathroom scale and it weighed in at 13 pounds. Ha! Fiddlegirl suggested that I bake the pair and then freeze the cooked squash for future use in appropriately sized portions. In the meantime, I’ve just been enjoying their considerable presence and was inspired to capture them for posterity. Here they are, three shots of hubbard squash as still life.
Willow House Chronicles 
Beautiful Hubbards. I freeze squash all the time, usually in 2 cup increments since that is what is required to make 2 loaves of squash bread! It works great, but I agree with you, I think I would just enjoy their presence until you need them, then cook them, use what you need, and freeze the rest.
I’m so impressed by your harvest of squashes, what a lovely variety of shapes and sizes! Your hubbard still life photos are lovely as well — I especially like the second one, the light gently carressing the furrowed brow…
Love that first still life photo – it looks *exactly* like all the painted still lives out there!
It seems like there ought to be something more you can do with the little gourds than just sit them on a table to look pretty for a single holiday, but I spent a few minutes poking about the web and couldn’t see anything suggesting they could be eaten in any manner. Lots of creative artwork made with gourds, though you have to have a lot of inspiration and time to make the really nice stuff.
My favorite tasting squash is Hubbard. I have never grown them and always have a difficult time finding them for sale. I keep them around in full form until after the holidays — then prepare them. Your daughter has a good idea of freezing packets of the squash. — barbara
Shanda, that sounds like a good idea. Do you have a favorite squash bread recipe you would be willing to share? If so, you could post it in comments or email me at willowhousechronicles@gmail.com. I’d love to try it!
Eyegillian, I like that, furrowed brow, hee. Squash are a favorite choice of mine for the garden. It’s not that I like squash all that much, though I don’t mind it. It’s that it’s just so easy to grow and so satisfying a crop.
Seab, yeah, I was pleased with how those photos turned out. It really does look painterly, doesn’t it? I hope you got some good gourd decoration ideas. I will gift you some this weekend!
Barbara, I haven’t tried hubbard squash before, so I’ll look forward to tasting it. Thanks for the recommendation!
Who knew squash could be so photogenic? I’ve never had Hubbard squash either. But, I remember, vaguely, one of my childhood books having a story of a farmer and his wife trying to break the shell on one. I think it ended up involving an axe. So, let us know how hard it was for you.
Louise, funny you should mention that. When I told my aunt about them, she replied that she had grown some years ago and couldn’t open them. Lacking an axe, she resorted to throwing them down the basement stairs to crack them open! Fortunately, I have both an axe and Railguy to wield it!
Squash Bread
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup squash puree
1/2 cup veg oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I use either toasted pecans or black walnuts, yum!)
Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Mix the squash, oil, eggs, water, and spices together, then combine with dry ingredients. Stir in nuts. Pour into well buttered pan (I’m serious, you better well butter it!) Bake 50-60 min or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Turn out after about 20 min to cool on rack.
This is a recipe for one loaf, just double it! If I’m gonna go though the labor for one loaf, I’ll just make it two (share or freeze).
Enjoy.
Canadian Tire has electric chainsaws on special this week.
We had half a dozen squash plants, and managed one buttercup from them. Even the zucchini didn’t produce enough for bread or freezing. Very jealous of your wonderful crop!
Shanda, Thanks so much for sharing your recipe! I tried it today and it was delicious!
LB, sorry about your squash crop. I didn’t know it was possible to grow zucchini without being overwhelmed.
The chainsaw would also be handy for the pumpkins…