[gurtie]

i have just bought from my local farm shop a 4lb 2oz butternut squash, is this usual? or will it be tough as old boots, I plan to grow them next year,
would any one recommend useing the seeds as i imagine they will also be big.

[Ropster]

I grew one this year that was just short of 6 pounds, it was fine.
using saved squash seeds is a bit hit and miss as they cross polinate very easily and you could end up with anything

[gurtie]

when you say anything!
please could you explain

[Ropster]

well by anything, clearly it will be squash like but not necessaraly like the one it came out of. there is a picture of half squash half marrow somewhere on the forum, someone will probably post it

[Ropster]

here it is , courtecy of a DD Post

[gurtie]

do you know if all squash are edible?
i am not good at cooking at the best of times so would like to give the children a fighting
chance.
wow (just seen photo)
i have got to give this ago.
many thanks.

[Kristen]

"a 4lb 2oz butternut squash, is this usual? "

The larger ones from my harvest are that big.  They are jolly hard work cutting up ... we bake about 1/4 for Sunday Lunch (peal and dice into about 1" - 2" cubes) and then the rest is basked (without pealing) with a couple of onions and a few cloves of garlic and generally a few mild chillies etc. and then converted to soup with chicken stock.

[bonfire]

Are any of them edible?

This one weighs 4lbs 2 oz too much in my book!

Hrrrrrumph!

[Kristen]

I don't think large Squashes are any less tasty than small ones, unless someone disagrees? Which is in direct contrast with, say, Runner Beans, where the large ones are tough as old boots by comparison to the small, succulent ones

[Trillium]

My squash are about that size on average, far too large for me, the only person who eats them in our family, but great for making a huge batch of freezer soup. I do mine similar to Kristen, bake the halved squash with a few heads of garlic (tops sliced off and drizzled with oil) and a few onions. When cooked, the good stuff gets scraped or squeezed into a blender along with chicken broth and a good squirt of lime juice and whizzed until smooth. No worries about stringy squash.

[HaggisWhisperer]

I grew some boston winter squash this year: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/wintersquash.html

A couple of the plants only had one flower each that was fertilized (despite my best efforts with a paintbrush) and I have got two mahoosive squash, the biggest is 18lb and the other a little less  I "cured" the skin and put them in the garage a few weeks ago. Last Saturday I cut into the smaller of the two and used some of it to make a yummy Thai red curry (and frozen a lot of curry), I have also made a lot of soup (and frozen a good bit of that) and I still have quarter of the squash to finish. Not to mention the entire 18lber

I was worried that it would be tough and inedible but it has been absolutely delicious 

I did have a neighbour crack a joke that I should have entered them in one of the enormous vegetable categories in a local show 

[gurtie]

i have only just discovered squash and think its wonderful not a patch on my mums stuffed marrows all wet and slimy!