Squash it to me

As this week is projected to be a wet one, I thought on Sunday that I should get some harvesting done. I went out and pulled up all the bean plants. I plucked all the beans from them and we'll go through and shell the ones that can be shelled and cook up the rest.

Winter squash from the garden: potimarron (red/orange) and patidou (yellow and green). Click to cucurbitacate.

I also picked the winter squash before it had a chance to rot on the muddy ground. It's not a big harvest, but there's enough to keep us going for a while. I left the two butternut squashes out there because they didn't look quite ready for picking yet. I'll keep my eye on them.

One of two butternut squashes still in the garden.

All of these squashes came from seeds that were saved (by us or a neighbor) and not from seed packets. The only real surprise is that the patidou (similar to acorn squash) reverted to prior forms. One plant gave us the oblong yellow squash and another gave us the dark green pumpkin-shaped fruit. The original squash looked exactly like a cross between these two, so it kind of follows.

The three dark green squash came from two plants. The two yellow squash came from one plant. Each of the potimarrons came from its own plant, and the two butternuts (not shown) come from two plants. I don't know why each plant produced only one or two fruit this year; that hasn't been my prior experience. It has been a funny year in the garden.