It Was Perfectly Delicious

  My sweet daughter-in-law, Joanna, has to be one of the most thoughtful people in the whole world.   While she always has the healthiest looking plants she occasionally asks questions about gardening.  More oft than not, her questions are being asked for someone besides herself as it is her nature to help in any way she can.  Recently, she was asking for not particularly gardening but rather recipes using squash that her friend had.  I had never heard of this certain squash but hearing her explanation, I figured that it must be a winter squash and could possibly be used as such.  I was really not much help.  Like I said, Joanna is always trying to help someone so once we ended our conversation, she set about helping me!  Unbeknownst to me, she ordered some Red Kuri squash seeds to be sent to the Little Bayou House.  Needless to say, when the package arrived, I was elated and since it was still early fall, I planted some of the seeds.

  The plants grew quickly and were quite hardy looking until one day, I noticed the telltale signs of squash worms!  Oh, my!  For those who are not familiar with our southern squash worms, they do not munch the leaves or even the fruit of the plant.  These worms invade the vine, itself! The adult female embeds an egg in the stem of the squash and within a few days a tiny grub hatches and starts eating away at the vine,  Since all of this is done internally, by the time the evidence points to an infestation, it is usually too late to do much.  I did slit open the stems and pull out dozens of the little critters but, alas, it was not good.  Most of my large vines died quickly.  One grew but was rather weak and spindly.  It did, however, set a fruit!  I was delighted and eagerly awaited the squash to develop.  Sadly, it did not have time.  The last vine started dying.  Well, just one thing to do.  I picked the squash.  What was supposed to be a five to seven pound squash was more like one pound.  What was supposed to be a squash with red flesh, had green.  What was supposed to be large enough to feed an entire family, fed two of us.  My daughter, Elizabeth, and I shared the lonely little squash.  We roasted it and stuffed it much like an acorn squash and I must admit that, even though it was underdeveloped and not ripe, it was delicious!  Thank you, Joanna!

  Hopefully, I will be able to plant the remaining seeds early enough in the spring that the bugs will not be out.  Squash bugs have ruined more crops recently but I still hesitate to use chemical sprays in the garden.  Perhaps I should attempt to grow my "winter" squash during the winter!  As a trial, a few seeds may just be popped into a pot in the greenhouse.  Fresh vegetables during the winter are delightful and if I can add squash to that bounty it would be fine by me.