Squash, Nature's Perfect Food

Summer is in full swing and this time of year things can grow faster than we can pick them. Zucchini and crookneck squash are most tender when picked small. But when it comes to summer squash, don't worry, there is a use for squash of every size. Sliced, diced, stuffed, grated to make bread, and even the zucchini that is suddenly the size of a school bus can be used to re-grow  new zucchinis next spring, simply by chopping it up with a shovel and turning it over into the ground in the fall. You should never have to buy seeds or plants again once you have a good harvest.  

I like to sow squash seeds directly in the ground just after the last frost in loose well drained soil, rich in organic matter. They like full sun.  Most summer squash are very good when picked small. Winter squash, on the other hand, ( which means it is harvested in the fall and keeps until the winter) like acorn and butternut squash, need to grow until mature to be edible.    

When you pick zucchini and yellow squash young, it promotes new ones to rapidly take their place. If you let a squash get too big, it takes the energy that would otherwise go into growing new squash. So I like to pick them very small. They are tender and bite size, and in a few days you will have a whole new crop of tiny squash to pick. You can even leave the blossoms on them for an interesting dish.

If they get a little bigger, I like to cut them long ways in two and grill them. They have a million uses and are most commonly picked 6 to 8 inches long. 

 Squash are easy to grow and very good for you. Closely related to the gourd, people have been growing squash for over 10,000 years. It is one of the so-called New World foods unknown to Europe before Columbus discovered America in 1492. Other  New World foods include corn, potato, tomato, bell pepper, chili pepper, vanilla, tobacco, beans, pumpkin, cassava root, avocado, peanut, pecan , cashew, pineapple, blueberry, sunflower, petunia, black-eyed susan, dahlia, marigold, quinine, wild rice, cacao (chocolate), gourds, and squash. 

Squash was grown by native Americans together with corn and beans. The beans would climb the corn stalks, and provide shade for the squash, which would act as a ground cover to limit weeds. The beans would provide nitrogen for all three crops. 

 Some of my other favorite squashes to grow are pumpkins, (I grew a 300 pound pumpkin once), banana squash, which can sometimes reach four feet long and weigh 50 pounds, and roly poly squash, also called round zucchini.  They are hard to find, but I have found them at the farmers market recently. You can also buy seeds at Navlet's.  

 Roly polys are almost like a melon, sweet and crisp. One of my favorite dishes is to lightly oil a casserole dish,  and layer roly poly squash, onions, elephant garlic, potatoes and cheese,  all sliced thin and layered in a casserole dish, with a little salt and pepper and cook until crisp.  

 Squash has to be one of nature's most perfect foods.