I ate my first spaghetti squash last week. I'm going to try to grow some next year. I saw seeds for single serving size squash at Park Seed, and since there are only 2 of us, that sounds like a good idea, since the bowl I tried reheating was not great. We sliced it in half, scooped the seeds put garlic & butter in it and popped it in the oven. Next time, I won't put the butter on before cooking. It seemed to make it mushy. Other than that, I really liked it. Next time, we'll cook it plain, add garlic, butter and parmesan cheese, then pop it back in the oven for a minute to melt the parm.

I cooked the seeds too, like pumpkin seeds, but I cooked them in the frying pan instead of the oven, just to try it. They were good too.

I planted my zucchini too close this year (to each other, and to everything else). Next year, it's not going in the raised bed. It's getting some space of it's own. Of course like a dope, I thought it was a vining plant. I've only grown it once, and that was several years ago. I just though - zucchini is squash, squash grows on vines... Lesson learned... We did get some very good zuchs though. About one a day for several weeks.

My potatoes were looking great until I left town for a couple weeks. DH overwatered them. They got hit when the sprinkler system came on, and he didn't realize it. As they yellowed, he watered them more, thinking they were dry. I salvaged a few that hadn't rotted. My carrots were less than stellar. I grew Danvers half long I think. They weren't sweet at all.

All in all though, the new raised beds I built this spring produced by far the best garden we have ever had. DH didn't want me to garden this year (first year in the house, too much work he thought, so I built it while he was gone to TX for 2 weeks). I had 80 square feet this year. Next year I'll have about 200, plus a raspberry patch. DH is happily helping me this time : )

Skybird,

The variety I planted this year was ButterStick and it looked a lot like your gold rush variety. Production was phenomenal and for once I had no problem giving away extras. in fact I planted additional seed in early July and had a new crop in August which kept producing well up to the last frost. The yellow color works well in not allowing any huge squash from being produced...they can't hide within the green foliage. Definitely a repeat next year. I even had one squash that must have been a cross between the yellow and green varieties. The fruit was kind of a mixture of gold and green... very unique.

We stick to winter squash. When summer squash comes on, I've got neighbors. The kind where you lock your car when you pull into their driveway because their kids will fill the back seat with zucchini. The kind of neighbors who phone you up, and if you don't answer, send their kids over with wheelbarrows full of summer squash to put on your porch and run away. Also, any winter squash thats picked when not fully formed cooks up just like a summer squash, although with a bit more flavor and sweetness. The trick is to get them when the seeds are still small and very soft.

For winter squash, it's somewhat of a staple around here. We've tried so many different varieties, and have come to some conclusions over the years.
- Growing huge ones is a waste, because we end up throwing most of a squash out. Frozen, cooked squash - well, you might be able to pass it off on a toddler in a high chair, but not my family.
- Keep-ability. If you cure them well, they're good for months, at least until late April/May of the next year.
- Salability/gift ability. Not everyone wants a 30 lb squash.

So, we concentrate on small, 2 - 5 lb squash, and the best ones we've found are two from Johnny's - Confection and Cha Cha. Confection is in the shape of a small, grey pumpkin, Cha Cha is a kabocha. They both are thick, really flavorful, and Confection can be flakey-dry. I have 70 odd in the greenhouse now. They make fabulous pie.

Another one thats fun is Guatemalan Blue. It's a smaller(10 lb max) , grey version of the banana squash. It's wonderful when its under-ripe and cooked up as a summer squash.

Linked is a recipe for the best squash pie I've ever had. I'm baking a couple of these this afternoon.

Here is a link that might be useful: good eats.

Since I was in high school, I've used garden squash and the recipe from the back of the Libby can for pumpkin pie. This year, the pun'kins were so meaty that after I'd carved a couple for jack-o-lanterns and then gave those to the chickens, I encouraged DW to try a real pumpkin in a pumpkin pie. Well, she baked some pretty good pumpkin cookies and then tried it in pie. She won't want to do that again. I've got one more pun'kin. It is probably destined for more cookies.

Wanted to put my 2 cents in on squash:

I answered the Summer Squash question in the Veggie forum, yesterday.

And, the Winter Squash question, this afternoon.

digitS'

Only one of my summer squash made it, yellow crookneck, don't know why. So I did not get much, better luck next year.

Winter squash went much better. I planted several pumpkin and harvested two really nice ones off those plants. Another area where I planted cucs I had more pumpkins come up??? Harvested two more there and two were destroyed by frost (the plastic ripped and blew off). Then I had acorn and butternut squash, one plant each. I harvested 12 acorns and 8 butternuts, not too bad.

Billie