Another front came through last night. Since this is the second significant front to come through in November I realize that the end of growing season is at hand for a lot of things in my garden. The last front actually brought a little freezing weather with it so I had to cover up the tomatoes. I also had a few winter squash that were not quite ready so I covered them too. I also harvested the winter squash that were ready.
I planted five varieties of winter squash back in August. I bought the seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (rareseeds.com). Even though I planted five varieties of squash, I wound up only harvesting three of the varieties I ordered. This was due to a couple of strange things that I have never happened to me before.
The first were the cucumber beetles. OMG! They were terrible. In addition to being a general menace they completely destroyed all of the vines of the Lakota winter squash. I really wanted this variety so that was pretty disappointing. However, that is nature. Bugs happen. Since I have never had cucumber beetles before, and since they COMPLETELY ate all of the Lakota vines, I can only assume that the Lakota squash brought the bugs to me. I will never plant this variety again.
The next thing that happened was truly strange. I am convinced that Baker Creek somehow messed up their packaging. I ordered a variety called Galeux d’ Eysines. As the season progressed it became clear that I had none of this variety growing in my squash patch. Instead, I had a large, oblong squash that was mostly green but stripped with a little orange. To this day I have no idea what variety this squash is. I have gone through all of the pictures on their website and I can find nothing that resembles the squash I grew. Very strange. I know accidents happen but I have never bought a package of seeds and then had them turn out to be something other than what was advertised.
On another note, I recently got an e-mail and pictures from Sherry Westphal of Michigan. She grew Tatume’ on a trellis in her garden. Tatume’ is my favorite squash of all time. Tatume’ is the rare squash that can be grown as either a summer or winter squash. I grow it in the spring and eat it when it is young. However, if you leave it on the vine it will turn into a mild winter squash. So glad Sherry enjoyed her Tatume’ and took the time to send pictures and tell me about it.
All of this cold means the end of what I consider prime gardening time. The tomatoes are done and the last of my winter squash will soon be on the porch. However, thanks to my mild climate, I have enough greens and brassicas growing in the garden to keep my hands dirty until February.
Squash looks yummy—but what really caught my eye was the red/white kitchen stool. Someone in my family had one just like that—parents or grandparents. Seeing that brought back a ton of memories.
That’s exactly why we have it! Bought it at an antique sale long ago becuase both sets of our grandparents had one too!
The green and orange squash on the top right has the coloring of a Lakota but I can’t see the shape well enough to identify further. A Lakota can be all orange, all green or any combination of the two colors. As far as shape, the Lakota is supposed to be sort of ‘pear-shaped’ .
Interesting. I also thought the Lakota were smaller. These mystery squash were all over 4 pounds and the shape was more like a mango than a pear.