I am interested, too. We picked 2 tromboncinos today and both snapped the stem off so I will have to cook them. The only thing left is Seminole pumpkins, I haven't picked any yet. The butternuts last year both rotted before we could eat them. We only got 2.

I harvest winter squash once the rinds are very hard and I am sure they are mature. Cut them, don't pull them, and leave 2-3" of stem attached. Don't carry them by the stems because they may partially detach and then bacterial gets into the fruit and causes it to spoil and rot.

I usually cure them for about 2 weeks, in the shade, on tables lined up under the covered patio. They might get an hour or two of morning sun but that's about it. If it has been rainy and they were kinda heavy with water when harvested, I generally lay wire racks on top of the tables which lifts them up above the table top a little bit and allows better air flow.

After they are cured, I store them wherever I have space available. The best location is a place where the temperature stays above 50 degrees and the air is cool and dry. Humidity of 60-70% is preferred, but I've stored them at much higher RH values and much lower ones and it has worked fine as long as I had cured them well in the first place. Here's a list of the various places I've stored them over the years: on the floor of the walk-in pantry, on the floor of the linen closet, in the concrete tornado shelter, on a baker's rack in the laundry room, on shelves in the garage (which is well-insulated but unheated) and even on shelves in the potting shed (which is not well-insulated and is unheated). As long as they were well-cured before being stored, they are pretty happy wherever I store them.

The C. moschata types store the longest for me and, among the C. moschata types, Seminole always stores for the longest period of time. I've had them last 12-18 months although I consider anything above 8-10 months to be just pure luck.

If you grow acorn squash and spaghetti squash, they are not cured and stored like the rest of the winter squash. At most, under normal cool or cold storage conditions, they're only going to last a few weeks, not a few months and you don't cure them because they'll deteriorate quickly during the curing process and you'll miss your chance to use them.

Any tips on making sure the rinds are hard?

I always do exactly what you said about pressing a fingernail into it and trying to "cut" or "dent" it with your nail. If you cannot make any impression into the rind at all, then it is mature enough. However, as long as there is adequate coverage by the foliage so that the squash will not sunscald, you can leave them on the vine even after they are that hard.

With the C. moschatas whose color is very dark green to black, in case you don't know, they will change color from the dark greenish-black to a sort of buff to a tan or pale orange color while in storage. If you leave them on the vine a very long time, they even will begin the color change while still in the garden.

If I am uncertain about whether a C. moschata is mature enough to harvest or not, I just err on the side of caution and leave it in the garden for another week or so. Because they cure and store so well, you can leave them on the vine practically forever after they mature if you want to. Just be sure you harvest them before the overnight lows start dropping below 50 degrees.

It is easy to harvest a C. moschata too early (and you'll figure out that you harvested too early if it doesn't cure well and stores only for a short time) but almost impossible to leave it on the vine too long, as long as you harvest before the weather turns cold. That makes C. moschatas almost fool-proof to grow, which is one thing I really like about them.

Ok. My first yokohama squash started turning orange on a little patch over a week ago. The orange is starting to spread and the skin is pretty darn tough.