This article is from information by Penny Velander, one of the Expert Growers at HCF.

Squashes are popular, versatile crops at Highbridge Community Farm and usually perform well for us. Let’s take a closer look at the four varieties that we grew this year and share some tips on making them last after they’ve been picked.

Crown Prince

This a wonderful Antipodean squash with tasty, thick, firm orange flesh, distinctive grey-blue skin, and a savoury depth that is lacking in a butternut. The Crown Price Squash is particularly good for soups, risottos and roasts well. It has hard skin and stores well.

Butternut

The Butternut Squash has become a firm favourite in the kitchen. The orange flesh stays firm when cooked and the skin is also edible and softens when roasted. It’s a very versatile squash that is good in soups or simply roasted and mashed with a dollop of butter, cream and cinnamon It has softer skin than the tough Crown Prince, but still stores well.

UCHIKI KURI

This Japanese Squash – also known as “Red Onion Squash” – has red/orange pear-shaped fruit with thin but firm flesh that provides a very delicate and mellow flavour similar to the taste of chestnuts. Uchiki kuri squash has deep-orange flesh that passes a rich gold colour to any dish it is added too – especially lovely in risotto. Like butternut, it has softer skin but it does not store as long as the other varieties.

Kabocha

This is another Japanese squash and a first time crop for us this year. It has thick firm flesh, good colour, excellent flavour and, with its dark green hard skin, it stores well. A good all-rounder!

Getting the best from your squash

Grown squash don’t do well sitting around in the cold or damp so, as soon as ours are ready, we harvest the lot at once. Then, we need to keep them carefully to get the most out of them over the coming weeks. Here’s what we advise:

  • Do not carry your squash by the stem. If the stem breaks off, the squash will not store for as long.
  • Place the squash on a sunny window ledge for approximately two weeks to cure it. This hardens the skin and dries out the stem to extend storage time and mellows the flavour by turning the starch to sugar.
  • After you’ve cured it, place the squash in a cool, frost free environment until needed – I put them in a box under the bed in the spare room.
  • Leave for at least a month for the flavour to mature. The longer it is stored, the better the flavour becomes.
  • Check regularly as not all squash will store for a long time. At any sign of rot, use immediately.