Winter Squash

Winter squash is just plain wondrous. One snowy December evening we dined on butternut squash as blowing snow swished by outside our window. Eating squash we had grown during last summer’s’ balmy days lets us extend our home-grown food for a full year. We’ll eat last summer’s winter squash until we plant lettuce in early April!

Three Sisters and Us

Native Americans had it right. In the early days of agriculture, they developed the “three sisters” crops of beans, squash, and corn. They’re now grown around the globe for their high-powered nutrition, great taste and ease of growing and storing.

In some ways we’re like Native American gardeners of years past. They had no modern way to can or freeze food so developed crops with long storage lives. Our garden yields an abundance of food but we don’t can or freeze any vegetables. Rather, we enjoy the easy keepers after frost closes down the garden. Our favorite is winter squash. We pick them just after the vines die in the very late summer and store them in a closet that stays cool but doesn’t freeze.

A Squash Primer

Botanists classify squash and pumpkins in the genus Cucurbita with a wide diversity of squashes falling into three separate species. Jack-o-lantern pumpkins and most common squashes are in the species pepo. Some giant pumpkins and Hubbard squash are in the maxima species while butternuts are in the mochata species.

Gardeners make it easy by just calling squash either winter or summer.

Summer Squash

Zucchini and crookneck are two common summer squashes. Best picked when small, they add to a delicious summer meal when lightly steamed or chunked up and added to salad. They don’t last long in storage so must be enjoyed fresh. This site explains a wide variety of summer squash.

 

Winter Squash

Dozens of varieties of winter squash and pumpkins are a delight to the eye and pallet.  All have a hard skin that enables them to keep for months in storage. Some winter squashes only last for a couple of months while others can be stored for a full year.  They range in size from tiny acorn squashes to giant Hubbards. Pumpkins are actually squash. They keep for months under the right storage conditions.

Our Favorite Winter Squashes

Butternut: These are readily available in grocery stores and are easy to grow. They are, perhaps, the most versatile squash for the table. Butternuts make delicious soup but often we roast them.  Add a little butter and they are delicious-especially on a frigid January evening. The recipe link above requires more work than we do, and it is tasty.

Acorn:  These tasty squashes are amazingly prolific. Because they are so small, one squash is just right for the two of us for one meal. We cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and microwave them.

Pie pumpkin: Yup these are squashes. Many pumpkins were bred to be jack-o-lanterns and are big to huge. They delight children. Big pumpkins are edible but the flesh is usually thin, stringy, and watery. We prefer eating diminutive sugar pie pumpkins that only weigh a couple of pounds. Often stores sell small pumpkins as pie pumpkins, but this can be misleading. All small pumpkins are not the pie type. True pie pumpkins feel heavy for their size and have thick flesh that’s not stringy, making it easy to convert to pie. We look for those that are squatty. The web has good information from cooking sites on the differences.

Big Squash: Many delicious squashes are huge and far too big for a family to eat in a day or two. When we lived in Idaho grocery stores would cut them up so customers could buy just a chunk. Probably our favorite big squash is the Blue Hubbard. Sometimes we’ll cook an entire big squash, put the cooked meat in a storage container and freeze it for later meals. Chunks of raw squash can be put in a plastic bag and kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Scrounging Squash

Squash are easy to grow but there’s an even better way to get a winter’s supply free for the asking. Businesses and families often make Halloween displays of various squash, pumpkins, gourds, bales of straw and corn shucks. They’re happy to give them away right after Halloween. In the fall of 2025, our bank gave us many big pumpkins and two huge jarrahdale squash. One was all we could eat. The other we gave to a food pantry. Developed in Australia this squash makes delicious pumpkin pies……lots of pies per big squash.

Deer Love Squash

Last fall businesses gave us more pumpkins and squash than we could ever use. We smashed and tossed them into our composter until we noticed local wild turkeys eating the seeds and deer visiting to eat the flesh. Cows love squash, and now we know deer also do. So, now we just smash pumpkins on the back lawn and hungry deer clean them up.

Cooking and Eating Squash

Squash and pumpkin seeds are rarely eaten but make a delicious and health packed snack. Squash meat is one of the most versatile of foods and can be prepared in dozens of ways. We bake, boil, or steam it, but for variety check out recipes abundant on the Internet.