Stash Some Today!

Squash, onions, sweet potatoes, potatoes, garlic …. all will store for the best eating in fall and winter. Butternut squash doesn’t taste REALLY good until Thanksgiving and beyond.

Sweet potatoes need time to cure and sweeten. Everyone tries to sell and eat them right after harvest which is much too soon. REALLY good tasting sweet potatoes take time. NOW is a good time. Our sweet potatoes have been in a warm room for a month and are now REALLY good eating. Stash a bunch for November and even December. (Alissa had one sweet potato from last year still alive and well in May of this year!!! She keeps her potatoes, squash, onions, etc., under her kitchen sink.)

Sweet potatoes and squash like 50 to 60 degrees.
Potatoes and onions like 40 degrees.

One squash grower lines her living room walls with her favorite squash. She places her prime squash behind her couch, under her coffee table, on the book shelves. Warm, dry, and safe from bumps and bruises.

Sucrine du Berry Black Futsu
Oct 19: Black Futsu and Sucrine du Berry, halved, baked at 400 degrees for an hour and fifteen minutes.
Black Futsu has a deep golden flesh, smooth, dry, relatively sweet, delicious. We only added butter after Black Futsu was on our plate.
Sucrine du Berry has a small cavity, bright deep orange, delicate and juicy flesh. The juices accumulate in the pan and re-absorb into the squash flesh if allowed to cool while cut side down. Du Berry would take on the spices for a pie perfectly. I’m thinking du Berry would also grate easily for those wanting to eat their squash raw. Tender and juicy.

Chiriman Kukuza Long Island Cheese
October 11: We baked Chiriman, Kikuza, and Long Island Cheese. Flesh color was very similar with Kikuza being the lightest orange and Chiriman the deepest orange. Chiriman was also the driest and sweetest with Long Island Cheese a bit more moist and Kikuza a tiny bit spicy/tangy. All three were very good with Chiriman winning first choice between these three. Again, we only added butter, no maple syrup. Long Island Cheese would be an easy-to-peel roasting squash.

American Tondo
Oct 7: We baked an American Tondo. It was absolutely YUMMY and delicious, dry and smooth, sweet, and attracted to butter. We ate half of the Tondo yesterday and finished it for lunch today.

Orange Summer Sunshine
Oct 4: Side by side taste testing of Orange Summer and Sunshine – halved, cleaned, baked with cut side down for an hour, no water:
Both were very good; both had golden orange flesh with Sunshine being a little darker orange. Orange Summer was drier and a bit sweeter than Sunshine. We served the squash mashed yet lumpy, adding butter and salt after it was on our plates. Yummy!