Thursday 5 December 2013

Edible

You may remember the post I did in October about the squash I managed to harvest this year. I'd grown Crown Prince and Queensland Blue and managed two of one variety and one of the other. The Crown Prince squash didn't actually look the colour they should, so I think the seeds I sowed were from a totally different variety, though which, I don't know. I decided that I'd still give them a go and see what they tasted like, I didn't know if they'd be edible or not. You can see that there were lots of seeds, but once scraped out, there was also plenty of flesh. It was cubed and roasted and it tasted delicious. It's a shame I don't know what variety it is as I'd grow it again. I suppose I could save some seeds, but there's no guarantee that they'd come true.

I've had a couple of trips to garden centres recently but you'd think you were in Santa's grotto rather than a place which sells plants. Most things have been pushed aside to accommodate everything you need for Christmas. I do enjoy looking around all the seasonal paraphernalia but I just wish that they'd remember that they're there to sell plants and gardening equipment too. Christmas seems to take over and there's very little else for sale.

The weather here today is terrible. We've got high winds and rain and it doesn't look as though it's going to let up any time soon. The wind got up during the night and we woke to a greenhouse without a door, a side panel out and half the roof missing. I suppose it'll be in one of the neighbour's gardens but I'll wait for the wind to subside before I go looking for it. There's also a broken fence panel so we'll have that to replace. I don't think we've got it as bad as the people in Scotland, and it's expected to hit East Anglia quite bad later on today. I hope everyone's safe.

28 comments:

  1. It does look lovely, did it take up a lot of space to grow, I would like to try a couple next year? Hope the weather doesn't get any worse for you, it is just as vile here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that most squash takes up quite a bit of space, but it's worth it. I'm hoping to grow more plants next year as it's a veg we all like, so definitely worth devoting more space to growing it. The wind's getting even worse here, it's quite scary.

      Delete
  2. Sorry to hear about the damage the wind has done to your greenhouse! It isn't nice when things like that happen. I hope that you are able to find all the pieces and sort out some repairs. Take care and stay safe. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure we'll manage to cobble it all together again. It's happened in the past when we've had high winds so I think the neighbours are used to finding bits of our greenhouse in their garden by now.

      Delete
  3. It's a shame that you don't know the variety. I've been given some 'Jack be Little' seeds which I'll try next next year.
    That's typical of garden centres.
    I hope that you don't suffer any more damage. Take care, Flighty xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm going to try a smaller squash next year as well as a larger type. I suppose garden centres need to cash in on the season to make their money in the winter months, I just wish they'd still sell the gardening gear which so many of us still require. It's still very windy here, I'm hoping that there isn't too much more damage.

      Delete
  4. It's blowing a gale here too.
    Love from Mum
    xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can imagine how bad it is being on the coast. Hope you don't get any damage. Stay safe.

      Delete
  5. I looks yummy! I'm growing a lot of new squash varieties next year too, so I'm looking forward to trying new types too. Here in Scotland I've lost half my front fence, and the fleeced plants have toppled over, but otherwise we came out fairly unscathed so I think we did well, because I was very worried about how the greenhouse would fair! I hope you get yours fixed soon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was delicious. I'm growing two new varieties next year. Sorry to hear of the damage you've suffered in the storm, I've heard how bad it's been in Scotland.

      Delete
  6. My first pumpkin didn't do well. It produced only a little fruit and so many female flowers didn't form their fruit set. Actually it must be there were 6-8 fruits on a vine. I still have some seeds, I have to try again

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I keep trying with squash, I haven't had a lot of success with them yet. I've got two new varieties to try next year.

      Delete
  7. Sorry to hear about the damage to the greenhouse and fence panel. Very windy up on the hills - the local news said 90 m.p.h. wind around here. Shame you don't know the variety of squash you grew. So versatile - either for soups or roasting. Our pears didn't turn out to be the ones we thought we were growing and Hubs thinks it had the wrong label on it when he bought it. Anyway, it turned out all right in the end as they are good eaters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The damage could have been a lot worse with the winds we've had, they're starting to die down a bit now, thank goodness. We all enjoy squash so it's a vegetable I'd like to grow more of. I think so many things must be mislabelled in garden centres, I'm glad the pears turned out to be ok anyway.

      Delete
  8. That squash does look a wonderful colour.
    Sorry to hear about your greenhouse and panel, hopefully you can fix the greenhouse. It's wild and windy here too, even planted wheelbarrows have been upturned, my greenhouse is hanging on in there, hopefully the winds will die down, they really are scary.xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The squash really was a lovely deep orange colour. I'm sure the greenhouse will be able to be mended, and a fence panel is neither here nor there, it could have been a lot worse. Hope you don't suffer any damage, the wind here's died down now.

      Delete
  9. I know what you mean about the Christmas goods taking over the Garden Centres. Ours has just had a re-vamp and is now huge. We visited last weekend, but wished we hadn't. It was very crowded, and must have contained literally millions of pounds' worth of Christmas decorations etc - all the stuff that you really DON'T need! I hope your greenhouse will be repairable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I realise that it's competitive out there these days, and garden centres have to go with the seasons, but my gripe really is that the customers who give them their business throughout the rest of the year get forgotten at Christmas. There's very little gardening merchandise on sale at this time of year. I'm hoping that I can locate all the pieces of my greenhouse. It's happened before so I'm trying to be optomistic.

      Delete
  10. What a shame about your greenhouse, I do hope you find the bits that blew away and that you can repair it okay. I went to our local garden centre (for pet food) the other day and it was a similar story. The little garden shop in town is much better though. A proper old fashioned place selling plants and seeds and bulbs. I love it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure we'll manage to get the greenhouse put back together, it always happens as soon as there's any wind. Local nurseries are much nicer places than garden centre chains, they're just becoming a rarity though.

      Delete
  11. I remember going to a huge garden centre down here in January and they were discounting stacks of Christmas stuff they hadn't sold. I wonder if the same will happen again.
    That's bad news about the greenhouse, I hope you get it fixed soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You should go again in January, you might pick up some bargains. I'm sure the greenhouse will be fine, once we've located all the bits.

      Delete
  12. Hope that you and the garden emerged from yesterday's atrocious weather without any further damage Jo. It's rather difficult getting anything garden related from the garden centres at the moment. I was in search of vermiculite a couple of weeks ago and in the end bought it online.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There was no further damage, thank goodness. I think smaller nurseries are the best places to go, especially at this time of year, but they're few and far between now, it's hard to find a good one.

      Delete
  13. Sorry to hear about the greenhouse. Hope you were able to rescue the lost bits. As for garden centres, I suppose they have to try and make money throughout the year and not many of us are buying garden stuff at this time of year. My heart sinks at the amount of plastic 'made in China' paraphernalia that we don't need, all in the name of Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We've managed to find all the bits, it's just waiting to be put back together again now. I don't mind the garden centres selling Christmas goods, in fact, I enjoy looking round myself, but they should still keep a selection of gardening items too. It's hard to find anything which isn't related to Christmas for sale at this time of year.

      Delete
  14. Shame about the squash Jo, I think if I was you I would try growing some of the seeds next year anyway....who knows what you'll get. Hope you got the greenhouse sorted and didn't suffer any more damage!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've already ordered two varieties of squash which I'll grow next year, I don't really have room for any more now. We've managed to recover all the bits of the greenhouse, I'm hoping that Hubby will get it all put back together today, afterall, there's all my tender plants in there needing protection. It's a good job there hasn't been a frost.

      Delete

 
!-- Start of StatCounter Code for Blogger / Blogspot -->