I think that winter squash has to be my favourite vegetable. It tastes great and stores well.
I'm not just talking about the butternut squash you buy from the supermarket, but all the other amazing varieties like Crown Prince, Sweet Dumpling and Turks Turban to name but a few. Some of these have a taste so far away from butternut you 'd think they were a different vegetable.
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Half a Crown Prince
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In the old days they used to keep them under the kitchen table. So long as you keep the frost off them they tend to keep fine. In fact they tend to like the same temperatures that people like, so bringing them into the house is all you need to do. We've kept them until may before now (but we normally run out way before then).
The ones that we managed to grow last year have been sat quite happily on the dining room window sill since the Autumn and they're still good to eat now. In fact we had one for tea tonight and it was great.
What's your favourite vegetable (for self sufficiency or otherwise)?
I love all veg, spinach and asparagus are favourite spring veg...but I really love all veg EXCEPT eggplant and okra...and the baby corn that look like alligators!
ReplyDeleteJane x
PS Now I want squash and apple soup!
I really don't like eggplant either but I've never tried okra (unless it's been in something and I've not relised. Asparagus is another facvorite of mine as well. It was so popular that in voctorian times a few of the big houses even had heating pipes installed under the asparagus beds so they could get an extra earily crop.
DeleteSilverbeet/spinach, pumpkin/squash, broccoli & cauliflower for growing myself. Cannot go past the humble old spud (potato) for eating uses are limited only by the imagination - side dishes and mains, stretching out a meal, thickening up a stew and so on!!
ReplyDeleteThe potato is so essential it somehow has a higher staus than a "veg"! Purple sprouting broccoli is another great veg but I've never bothered with spinage much (there's always nettles if you don't tell anyone!)
DeleteI have never heard of half crown prince, sounds like a really good keeper. Most people grow butternut around here in Virginia. I took my crop to the cannery and had them canned at a safe high temperature.
ReplyDeleteIt's just Crown Prince (but there was only half in the picture!). If you go on Kings seeds web site they've got loads of types of squash. Out of all the ones I've grown and tried butternut seems to have the most bland taste to it. A cannery sounds interesting. Nothing like that over here.
Deletewe grew crown prince too again this year its such a lovely squash, I also grew crooked neck which i though was a soft skinned summer squash but I have managed to store a few too. I think the squash is my favourite veg as it's so versatile but the humble onion and potato are not far behind.
ReplyDeleteI love all things leafy and have been craving lettuce all winter I did give in and buy some spanish mixed leaves the other day but managed to sow some in the polytunnel yesterday so hopefully the rocket famine will end soon
I've never had much luck storing onions but I love growing them. They look so good in the garden all standing upright. I need to remove the chickens from the gadren before I plant too many seeds!
DeleteFor storage, like you it would be the squash, we just ate our last one the other week.
ReplyDeleteFor flavour it would have to be Kohl Rabi, grated with carrot and a dollop of mayo it makes for THE most delicious coleslaw ever!! (And it's so easy to grow.)
Never grown Kohl Rabi but it's one I'll have o grow in the future. That said it would have to be a good coleslaw as I don't think I've tried one I've liked yet!
DeleteFor me, I like just about all kinds of vegetables but if I had to name a few favourites it would be butternut, kohlrabi, sweet potato and red cabbage. I'll have to put up my recipe for Butternut soup on Cooking in the Frontline.
ReplyDeleteI love butternut soup but the first one I ever made I didn't relise you had to let them ripen first. It was not a good experience! Do you grow much the same in Angola or is it more tropical veg?
DeleteAngola is tropical, Kev, in the sense that it is only a few degrees south of the equator but it is a big country and ranges from desert in the south to rain forest in the north with everything in between. Butternut is easy to grow here and yes, it is best when it is ripe and the flesh has this rich orange colour. It is a seasonal product so I don't think there are any available right now but I will work on the recipe and post it. Butternut flesh does not have to be squidgy soft, it is hard to peel and the flesh is usually as crisp as a fresh beet or parsnip. If it has decent sized seeds in the middle when you cut it, it is fine. The squash you show in the photo looks perfect.
DeleteAubergine grows like a weed here and Marcia has a fantastic recipe for that so I shall sit with her and post that one as well.
Can you suggest some good squash recipes? It is not a veg. I have eaten much, because I have no idea how to make it....Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOh I must try some of those squash you mentioned. I've got one last pumpkin to eat, it's sat on the windowsill, fat and orange. Veg lasagne maybe....
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