The Old Folks Home

[pennyJo1960]

I love pumpkin pie make it as often as possible

 

[microchick]

We LOVE butternut squash. Sometimes I cube sweet potato, butternut squash and regular potato, stir them up with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, place them on a cookie sheet, salt lightly and sprinkle with finely chopped fresh Rosemary and Basil. Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown. Turn as needed to brown evenly. Healthier than French fries and you have a potato and veggie in one dish. I serve them a lot fixed this way with hamburgers.

I also hack them in half (I actually use a meat cleaver on them), cook them in the microwave until done, scrape the pulp out of the shell, blend it and freeze it for future use. I have used the puree a lot in spaghetti sauce giving it a bit of a veggie boost and we love it. It gives the sauce a richer taste.

Finally, I cut the squash into rings, remove seeds and pulp as needed, baste with butter, salt lightly and bake them like sweet potato.

The chickens love the leftovers, rinds, pulp, seeds, etc.

Win win as far as I'm concerned.

 

[chickadoodles]

Thanks y'all.
I had no idea It would be that hard to crack open. So I guess I will be trying something else. Maybe some type of pumpkin. What kind do you and Ron grow Scg?
I would not be able to open anything that has to be chopped with an ax. I have trouble holding a coookie sheet.

 

[Beer can]

I have never grown butternut squash if any of y'all have please give me some info on how you liked it. Please I want to try some new varieties of squash this spring.
Yes it's cold here to this morning, but I don't want to play with the cold.

We grow them every yr, our favorite. Usually just halve them lengthwise, take out the seeds, put some butter on them cover with foil and bake. Scoop out the flesh, more butter and salt and pepper, mmm good like candy.
Some people put maple syrup on them.
Really not that hard to halve, I just cut off the stem and a little off the end, use a long heavy butcher knife and just wiggle a little bit till it gets started and push down. Kinda like a sweet potato, hard but once you get started slices right through.
Trying a different variety next yr, wanted to this last yr but never bought the seeds. Bought some multiplier potato onions, have to buy them in the fall so I added a few other things I've always wanted to try. Mammoth red mangels to feed the chickens next winter, pumpkins that have hulless seeds, and sweet meat squash that are a old heirloom get 10-20lbs and store for months, they say get sweeter with age. They're blue and shaped like a pumpkin

 

[microchick]

Beer Can, do you know the name of the squash in the picture? I would LOVE to grow some of them next year.

Also as far as easy to deal with pumpkins, Sugar Pumpkins should fit the bill. Thin skinned and tasty. Not very big either. You can bake them like squash or use the pulp for pumpkin pie.

 

[Beer can]

Beer Can, do you know the name of the squash in the picture? I would LOVE to grow some of them next year.

Also as far as easy to deal with pumpkins, Sugar Pumpkins should fit the bill. Thin skinned and tasty. Not very big either. You can bake them like squash or use the pulp for pumpkin pie.

They're called sweet meat squash. I wanted to try one that gets big and stores well. Some winter squash I don't like, blue hubbard is good but can sometimes be stringy. I grew one called Lakota a heirloom also, cool looking but was like baby food squash or the frozen box yucky squash you get from a store.
There's actually a few good squash type pumpkins I almost went with, good sized one's, then I saw those sweet meat squash. There's a few places that have them.
Yeah we've grown them sugar pie pumpkins before, got 63 one yr just off four plants. Used them for pies, soup and even just ate them the same as we do butternut squash.

 

[ronott1]

Thanks y'all.
I had no idea It would be that hard to crack open. So I guess I will be trying something else. Maybe some type of pumpkin. What kind do you and Ron grow Scg?
I would not be able to open anything that has to be chopped with an ax. I have trouble holding a coookie sheet.

Wrap the whole thing in foil and bake it! The skin will fall off.

You can also microwave--no foil though.

 

[ronott1]

I just got some tips for cutting an extra hard squash:

Start in the dimple--middle of the squash and push the point of the knife in as far as possible. Pull and push the knife to work a like to split the squash.

Sounds like too much work for me since I do not like squash!

 

[miss heny]

The longer I wait for my test results from the doctors the more I worry. :/

 

[microchick]

The longer I wait for my test results from the doctors the more I worry.

Not knowing is agonizing.

Try to look at it from a different angle. The fact that they didn't have you on the phone STAT! is a good sign. Usually the worse it is the faster they call you.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and whisper a prayer in the meantime. One of my favorites is 'Have faith and wait'.

Thanks Beer can. I'm going to start hunting for the seeds.