Friday, October 30, 2009

Pumpkin patch



It's just past Halloween and here's the rogue pumpkin patch in the old pig pen. This squash is one that spontaneously grew from the seeds of one we had tossed to the pigs. It is some weird hybrid of the many squashes we grew this past summer. From looking at the fruits I'm thinking it is a Ronde de Nice crossed with a Thelma Sander's Sweet Potato pumpkin.




Who knows, it could be a Seminole pumpkin/Cocozelle Italian zucchini cross. Anyway, the fruit are apple green with light streaks and have a graceful ribbed and slightly pointed shape. Very lovely and striking fruit. The leaves have silver splashes. The taste is also superb, very sweet when raw and fine-textured almost buttery when cooked. We've been really enjoying them, but I am now trying to keep some to save the seeds.

I am going to try to plant them next summer and de-hybridize them by roguing the off-type plants. After generations they can be open pollinated again, and with luck we could create our own plant breed. The Forbes Family Favorite squash perhaps???






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