Best tasting meaty (not stringy) sweet (not candy-like) squash?

[Anthony_Toronto]

Weaponry pending...

[Hermitian]

What a great thread! I grow the Blue Hubbard especially for making meat pie. It's like sweet potato pie but the contents are squash and some kind of meat -- a beef sausage or marinated flank, or tri-tip, etc.

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by Anthony_Toronto

Noted on Striata d'Italia F'sD, sorry for the confusion! Just spoke to my neigbour today about my search for a trailing zucchini (another thread of mine), he might have some sort of seeds this year but who knows that they will turn into. He thinks they will be those really long zucchini, but that definitely isnt the variety that he had 4 years back.

He's probably thinking Tromboncino Squash. From what I've read and pictures I've seen, they grow quite long and can be eaten young and green like zucchini, or be left to mature like winter squash.

[jmsieglaff]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

He's probably thinking Tromboncino Squash. From what I've read and pictures I've seen, they grow quite long and can be eaten young and green like zucchini, or be left to mature like winter squash.

I've grown tromboncino before as summer squash (also let 1 mature). For summer squash they are picked a few days to a week or so after flowering and by that time are 18-36" long. I enjoyed them as a summer squash, nice firm texture, nutty flavor, held up well to grilling--but the better half wasn't thrilled with them. The plants are extremely vigorous and climbed anything in their way. They had no issues with SVB and out grew powdery mildew pretty well. The production was just too sparse so we haven't grown them again. Maybe sometime I'll try crossing them with some sort of a more standard butternut and see if I can't boost production. As a winter squash they are very similar to your standard butternut, kept well, but flavor wasn't as good and texture wasn't quite as good. Don't get me wrong, they weren't at all bad--but in a side-by-side tasting the butternut won on all accounts. They look pretty neat and when grown vertically are nice and straight.

[RJGlew]

My order of preference:

a) Buttercup,
b) Butternut,
c) Hubbard
d) Sweet potato squash.

[Anthony_Toronto]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

I've grown tromboncino before as summer squash (also let 1 mature). For summer squash they are picked a few days to a week or so after flowering and by that time are 18-36" long. I enjoyed them as a summer squash, nice firm texture, nutty flavor, held up well to grilling--but the better half wasn't thrilled with them. The plants are extremely vigorous and climbed anything in their way. They had no issues with SVB and out grew powdery mildew pretty well. The production was just too sparse so we haven't grown them again. Maybe sometime I'll try crossing them with some sort of a more standard butternut and see if I can't boost production. As a winter squash they are very similar to your standard butternut, kept well, but flavor wasn't as good and texture wasn't quite as good. Don't get me wrong, they weren't at all bad--but in a side-by-side tasting the butternut won on all accounts. They look pretty neat and when grown vertically are nice and straight.

I believe that is what he might be getting this year, but that's definitely not what he had before. The plant was a plain old zucchini. I was watching their place for a few weeks that summer and let one go on the base of the vine, and it grew into the same big ole zucchini that comes off regular zucchini plants when you let them grow for too long. The other zukes picked off the vine were just plain old zukes, same colour, texture, size, shape, etc. I just hate dealing with the regular zuke plants, my garden would be far better suited by one that trails. And now that it seems that this plant is mythical, I'm really disappointed that I didn't save seeds from it way back when.

[Anthony_Toronto]

Ok...ended up planning for Butternut (saved seeds from last year...Waltham or something similar), Butternut Rogosa, Blue Hubbard, Red Kuri, Buttercup, Delicata, and Triamble. I think I don't have enough main garden space and a few of these are going to have to be planted in my compost pile, and trailed along the side of my house, though not many hours of sun on that side so will have to put some of the smaller ones there.

Thanks for all the suggestions, if any interesting results I'll try to post them on about 9 months after harvesting and tasting.

[Vespertino]

I like Kabocha squash (the green ones not the orange ones). Kind of like a dryer version of an acorn/butternut, not stringy, really tasty! I've been meaning to see how good of a pie they make.

[FarmerShawn]

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-eating_..._squashes.aspx
This is an enlightening article about developing and preserving the best flavor in winter squashes. At least I learned stuff I never knew despite my decades of growing and eating squash.


There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

[Anthony_Toronto]

Originally Posted by FarmerShawn

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-eating_..._squashes.aspx
This is an enlightening article about developing and preserving the best flavor in winter squashes. At least I learned stuff I never knew despite my decades of growing and eating squash.


There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Great link, thanks FarmerShawn! Explains why my first year of butternuts was so great (good long season with late harvest...squash stored well for up to a year), versus the following season (cold, late start, blight killed vines, squash picked too early...much lower yields but also were rotted within about 4 months).