butternut squash

[happy place]

i hope some one can help how do i know when my butter nut squashes are ripe , do they go orange or does that colour appear once they are picked . they sound sort of hollow if you tap them with your knuckles

[pumpy]

i find,that once they have turned a uniform yellow,(more-or-less lost the green streaks),then they are fine. Will store well into the winter.

[happy place]

right ok mine are still apale stripy green sort of colour so i'll wait a while longer thanks for the info

[hedgewitch]

This has been discussed a little over here.
Mine still isn't ripe and I accidentally picked it a couple of weeks ago. I'm just gonna leave it until it turns that pale orange colour all over.

[Millymollymandy]

I cut into one of mine because when I harvested them a few were split and this was was very split. Although it had been formed for months and was pretty much the right colour outside it still wasn't quite ripe enough. I will leave mine ripening for another month before I try one.

[hedgewitch]

ARGH!
What to do What to do.
So I really should be looking to leave it for a couple months more - I mean mine still has green bits on it.
I would rather leave it too long than not long enough as it is my only one.

[Peggy Sue]

OK I have loads of tiny butternut but there will be frost by the end of the week- do I leave them or bring them in?

[Millymollymandy]

I still have 4 young ones on one of my plants and they have survived 4 frosts at temps of about 3C. However if I didn't have about 15 already indoors I might have picked them by now to be on the safe side!

[Peggy Sue]

Ok I'll go for picking half of them!

[Peggy Sue]

Well I felt like David Attenborough amoungst all that folaige...but what a surprise I picked 11 decent sized ones- a few really big plus some tiny one which I left in the hope they may grow a little more. So now I feel much better about butternut growing

They are now scattered around the house on windowsills to ripen...some say in a dark cool shed, would that be better?

[Millymollymandy]

No - the cool dark place is for storing them when they are ripe. In fact I leave mine on sunny windowsills in a warm room the entire winter and they last for a good 6 months!

[Peggy Sue]

Ah thanks for that, being indecisive they spent a day on the windowsill and a day in the garage, so I'll get them back out again today!

[hedgewitch]

Baked my Butternut (giggle) last night!
I made Baked Butternut Pasta with Caramelised Onions and Sage Crumb Crust
(I'm still not used to cooking for 2 people - I made a HUGE dishful)

However, this only used up two thirds of one half so I pureed and froze the rest of that half and then tomorrow with the other half I shall make Roast Carrot and Butternut Squash Soup.

YUM!

[Peggy Sue]

I ate my first one yesterday too- not quite as adventurous, I just roasted it....all of it..none left YUM

[Millymollymandy]

No - the cool dark place is for storing them when they are ripe. In fact I leave mine on sunny windowsills in a warm room the entire winter and they last for a good 6 months!

Well something went horribly wrong and nearly all my potimarrons started going rotten so I cooked up the bits I could salvage for either puree to freeze or gave the mush to my chooks (who absolutely adore pumpkin!).

Then some the butternuts started going a bit wrinkly too so loads of them are pureed up in the freezer. I then managed to find some space in my cool cellar (in amongst the gazillions of apples!) and since then the remaining pumpkins have stayed OK and no more rot!

I now have a whole drawer of one of my freezers full of pumpkin puree so I will be doing OK for pumpkin pie and cakes for a long time to come!