Hey there,
Squash season is here, and there are a lot of different types to try. Different colours, textures, sizes and uses. Many varieties will be familiar, but some may be new to you. Here is a quick rundown of some of the different varieties we have and their uses.
Butternut, probably the most familiar, is a great all purpose squash, sweet orange flesh with smooth skin making it easy to peel before cooking and only a small section of seeds and good to clean out.
Spaghetti, the most different of the squash we grow. When baked in the oven, the flesh can be scraped out as slightly crunchy yellow noodles, great treated like regular pasta and all the sauce variations. Had a friend prepare like a vegan alt to pulled pork on a bun, and it was delicious.
Sweet Dumpling, smaller squash with sweet and mild, light yellow flesh, similar in shape to acorn squash but cream coloured outside with green and yellow splotches. Wonderful backed or stuffed, with handsome colouring making it a beautiful fall decoration before eating.
Delicata or sweet potato squash, sausage shaped and roughly as big as your fore arm, these sweet, orange and dryer fleshed squash are a favourite. Lovely cream with yellow and green stripes on the outside they are lovely to look at, but their thin skin is edible and makes roasting and eating easy. My favourite way to eat, slice in half long ways, scoop out seeds, then slice into little crescents. Toss in your favourite oil and seasonings, roast in the oven, then eat skin and all sort of like little sweet potato wedges.
Hubbard, fun fact, pumpkin pie purees in stores are mostly hubbard. Dark Orange skin, and deep orange and smooth textured flesh, great for pies, muffins, or cooking. We have grown a beautiful Japanese variety for the last few years, and love the consistency of their yield, reasonable size, and smoother skin for peeling or baking.
Pie Pumpkin, smaller pumpkins with thicker walls then that of the carving pumpkins. Great for any squash uses, not just pie. Make a great decoration as well, but don't recommend for jack-o-lanterns because of the thicker walls.
That isn't all the varieties we have, we also have a blend of bigger squash that will keep you in pumpkin for months. Beautiful pink or blue skins, they are quite striking, small acorn types with white skin and flesh, a couple buttercups and an odd variety of large pink pumpkin that have big warts on the outside that look kind of like peanuts.
I enjoy the colours and varieties of the different squash, and even though the size of some of these guys can be intimidating, they should last a while whole in a cool dry area, and cooked and frozen for months.
