Down Mulberry Lane

Squashkin? Delakin? Pumash?

We couldn't decide what to call this new squash.  I had a plant come up on it's own and I just let it go, knowing my other squash weren't growing as well.  This is what we ended up with.  In looking at it, we think it is a cross-breed between the delicata squash that we grew last year and the sugar pumpkins.  Most all were growing on their bottoms, sitting upright.  The green stripes were a bit more apparent until just at ripening when they began to take on some orange. 

I decided to cook one up today and see what it tasted like.  I baked it for quite some time and once done, I served it at supper.  The texture was more stringy like in spaghetti squash (which is odd because I never grew that here).  I think it took on that from the pumpkin.  The smell of the item smelled identical to pumpkin, although it was more yellow in color like squash.  The flavor... was bitter.  We don't know what went wrong with this cross-breed, because delicatas are sweet and so are sugar pumpkins, but this was like a flat squash flavor with a bitter edge to it. 

I will be trying to boil the next one to see if I notice any changes and see if I can work with it enough to cause us to keep the 20 some that grew in the patch.  If not, I guess the girls can enjoy carving them... we have plenty. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

Untitled Comment

7:21 AM, October 6, 2008 .. Posted by morningsunshine

we had some pumpkins that were colored and felt (kind of squishy-like) like a zucchini, but pumpkin in shape, and growing on pumpkin vines, not zucchini.
golly, but nature can be strange sometimes!