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Winter squash, harvesting and storing.

September 21, 2014 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

Growing winter squash is pretty easy, but it’s crucial to get the bit right between picking and eating them to get the best possible flavour.

The easiest ones to grow are Uchiki kuri because they put up with cooler, wetter summers better than other types of squash. Let me first remind you why winter squash are such great vegetables.

Reasons to grow winter squash:

they taste wonderful

they look great

they’re easy to grow from seed

they don’t take up much space if you grow them up through a cane wig-wam.

By the way, they’re called winter squash because they’re eaten then, rather than grown over winter.

how to grow & store winter squash, uchiki kuri squash

The real flavour develops over the few weeks before they’re eaten

  • Remove leaves so that the sun can reach them while they’re still on the plant.
  • Pick them at them at the end of September, or later if it’s still sunny, when the stalk attached to the fruit is turning brown and woody, leave 3-4 in of stalk on the squash.
  • Sit them somewhere warm and sunny, a greenhouse is ideal.
  • Store them upside down so the depression around the stalk doesn’t collect moisture, somewhere cool and dry, either on a wooden slatted shelf or in an onion/string bag.
  • Keep them for at least four weeks before they’re eaten.

Here they are earlier in the summer:

growing & storing winter squash, www.growingnicely.co.uk,

They’ll last for two – three months, giving you delicious roasted vegetables and soup over that winter period when you might be getting a bit fed-up with green vegetables.

Uchiki kuri squash, winter squash, allotment-

One of the reasons I love growing them is because they look good at the allotment with their big, lush leaves, and I do like my allotment to look good as well as being functional.

Next year they’ll have bigger, stouter wig-wams to grow up, this years were a bit small and feeble, and these are big plants.

If you haven’t grown them this year, I hope you’ll have a go next year.

Find out here how to grow them.

Happy gardening

Jill

all images: Jill Anderson

 

Related posts:

roasted winter squash, www.growingnicely.co.ukRoasted winter squash recipe ,www.growingnicely.co.uk, asparagus, Chartwell, kitchen garden,Tips & inspiration from a gorgeous vegetable garden. Covent Garden Flower Market London, wedding flowers,Friday gardening favourites. Default ThumbnailMy allotment experience from start to finish.

Related posts:

roasted winter squash, www.growingnicely.co.ukRoasted winter squash recipe ,www.growingnicely.co.uk, asparagus, Chartwell, kitchen garden,Tips & inspiration from a gorgeous vegetable garden. Covent Garden Flower Market London, wedding flowers,Friday gardening favourites. Default ThumbnailMy allotment experience from start to finish.
Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food Tagged With: harvesting & storing winter squash, Uchiki kuri squash

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Hello, I’m Jill Anderson.
This is where you’ll find good, solid information about gardening, growing fruit & vegetables and how to keep it all looking good.
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