So spill it Silvia! How many Sunshine squash did you get off of how many plants? Have you pulled all the vines now or are you still growing more? The italian squash are beautiful. Did you get to taste them (in Italy) before you grew them? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm still growing mine. I had to start over with my squash plants. :-( When my sprinkers went out (we are STILL working on fixing them) it really took a toll on the squash and tomatoes.

I had such high hopes for them this year. Oh, well. Fall will be just around the corner soon and SOMEONE sent me a new tomato to try! :-D (Thanks again!!!)I am looking forward to them.
Barbie

Hi Barbie

Remember the squash planted in the back garden next to the fence? I planted 1 variety of few different squash, the vines are still growing but are shorter than the Italian one. Each vine usually had 1 or 2 squash. And yes! I tried the squash in Italy and it is delicious! they sell it at the market cut in small portions.

Nikki is inspecting the squash:)

Hope that you get a great fall season!

Silvia

Marvelous darling, simply marvelous, save some soup for me ;-)

Very pretty and probably tasty too!

Silvia, Beautiful harvest! I have a question concerning the Buttercup Squash. I see one in your photo. How long do you allow the squash to harden off once cut from the vine? This is my first year growing Buttercup ( Burgess Strain) and the first ones are turning dark green. Do you check for the orange spot before cutting? Any help is appreciated, thanks, Mary

Morning Silvia,
nice collection of winter squash.I have some butternut & acorn that are almost ready.Last year the butternut kept producing all through the summer-I was really surprised.The fruits got smaller,but still great flavor.May you have a long harvest.

Hi Tom - this season Kellog's Breakfast was one of the best tomatoes, some of them were close to 2 pounds and since I already made yellow salsa with the Pork Chop, I thought the soup will make a good use of them because they are so meaty...I will save some soup for you and I will be making winter squash soup also.:)

This morning Kellog's Breakfast

Thank you Amber, any fresh food from the garden cannot be beat for the taste. And I will be growing your varieties next fall...

Hi Mary - I look for signs like the vines start to dye out, the stem turns a little bit yellow/brown, the spot on the bottom turns light colored, but remember winter squash can be eaten at any stage of maturity and does not even need to be cured. When fully ripe they will last longer on the shelf and becomes sweeter. Some varieties will last longer than others, acorn squash is the one that does not last too long. When I will use my Italian variety, I will send you some seeds for you to try.
Happy harvest!

Good morning Darcy, thank you and I hope that you have a great harvest with your squash!
I saw a recipe for cherry tomatoes that somebody won a prize with them so I made them and turn out terrific!
Here it is in case that you want to make. Dry the cut cherry tomatoes in a slow oven for about 1 hour, I use the dehydrator. After take them out and put some oil spray and seasonings, anything that you like salt, pepper. Put them back to dry till they have a little bit of moisture almost dry and pack them in a jar with 1 hot pepper, if you like any fresh herb like rosemary, oregano, I use zaatar and a peeled garlic clove. Fill to the top with olive oil and put in the refrigerator, you can also canned them but I prefer the fridge since I can see that they are not going to last too long with my daughter Cheryl using them in salads, you can use the flavored oil to dip bread that was what I did yesterday.:) Also made eggplant relish with tomatoes to use as a sandwich spread, those Monticello white eggplants are doing really good and so tasty!

Silvia

Sylvia,
You have a nice squash harvest of the different varieties. I've been getting the different squash off my vines but none are making it into storage. They look too yummy to store any of them. When the Seminole pumpkin squash start coming in I'll try to store those.

Lou

Hi Lou

Thank you and I know how hard it is not to eat the squash after the harvest.lol.
You will have plenty of squash to save with the seminole considering all the space that you have!
I like to grow mostly the big varieties like the Cinderella last season but I also like the small varieties for just one recipe. After I cut open the big pumpkins I saved them shredded in the freezer to make soups, breads and other things like a pumpkin/ sausage lasagna for company.

Cinderella last May

{{gwi:102350}}

Silvia

You don't have squash vine borers down there? I just lost my yellow summer squash and zucchini to them. I know the Seminole pumpkin is a C. moschata, so it should be resistant, but isn't the Cinderella a susceptible variety?

L in FL

I don't have that problem. For me any squash grows as easy as the seminole.

Here is my seminole in past seasons

{{gwi:133933}}

Silvia

Congratulations on not having SVBs. I hate those things.

You have a beautiful squash harvest. I especially like your photo of the Cinderella on the chair. It almost looks like the carriage from the Disney movie.

Silvia, Thank you for the information on when to harvest. Please put me on your seed list for that gorgeous Italian squash.

Lou, I was very successful in growing Seminole pumpkins from seeds given to me from Silvia. My Seminole pumpkins did not look like Silvia's picture. Mine were buff color. I grew more the following year (last Spring) from my own saved seeds. I did have some trouble with the pickle worm, so I wrapped each young pumpkin in a piece of fine nylon netting to save them from the little beasts. I also use recycled foam meat trays under each pumpkin/squash to keep them from resting in the soil. I harvested 25 pumpkins from three seeds. I'm not growing them this year since I still have plenty in the freezer.

Thank you L in FL.

Mary, I will send you the seeds as soon as they are ready. When the squash is big size I grow them in spring only but if they are small size, I grow them in spring and fall.

I love Italian risotto with squash, in the market is sold by the piece. Today I just gave an Italian chef one of the pumpkins, some Nero di Toscana kale, Calabrese hot peppers and big size tomatoes in all colors. He was very happy to know that he can save the seeds...

Campo de Fiori market with winter squash

Silvia

I had a great harvest dinner for friends last night, the Italian squash it was even tastier than I expected! I am drying the seeds now and will be sent to those that I offered, it is probably one of the best winter squash that I have ever grown. When those of you that are going to grow next season, you will agree with me.

I used about the quarter of squash for dinner, the rest went to the freezer.

{{gwi:103725}}

This pasta dish was amazing! Friends kept saying how good it was, it also had kale from the garden.

{{gwi:103726}}

Had green beans, salad with pickles and tomatoes from the garden

Freshly picked blackberry pie, but the real star was a banana cake with fresh banana cream, I love that with the bananas from the garden, I didn't take a picture, next time.:)

Silvia

Looks amazing, as always, Sylvia. Does kale produce all summer for you? I love kale, especially dinosaur kale, but haven't tried growing it.

Thank you Writersblock. Dinosaur kale is one of my favorites because of the taste and also holds the best in the heat and surprisingly good the bugs don't really care for them. I already took out the other kale varieties for the summer, I will be planting collards and kale again in the fall, in the meantime I left few in the garden.
I am posting the recipe for you, I know that you sometimes ask for the recipes and I would not want you to miss this one, it is really good! I served it with grilled marinated pork chops in white wine, red lime juice and olive oil.

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: pasta dish

Holy Moly Silvia, I just ate but somehow feel like I'm starving :-( :-)

Looks like I'll add Kellogg's back to the trial list too :-(

Tom

Hi Tom, you would love the banana cream cake! bananas from the garden are absolutely delicious, I sent the guests with some of it for today to remember the harvest dinner.
And yes you should grow the Kellog's Breakfast next season, another one that was beautiful and tasty was Cherokee Green. I made a grilled salsa with these tomatoes that was fantastic! I have made so many preserved veggies this season, that I don't know which one is my favorite anymore. And now that I remember you should also grow the Orlando eggplant, it is so pretty, prolific and tasty, it is a must in the garden.
Tom, if you were living closer, you would be invited to all my parties.

Silvia

Thanks for the recipe, Silvia. It does sound good.

So you don't keep your green glaze collards going all summer? I have to say I generally don't care for collards, but the ones I've had don't look anything like those. I'm used to the big tough ones.

You are welcome. I do keep the green glaze collards for the summer, also the dinosaur kale but with one condition, they have to be watered daily and picked any new leaves, this way the leaves are always tender and sweet not tough or bitter or worse buggy.

Yesterday, one thing caught the attention from the guests, that was the apples, they said "we never seen apples in Florida!"

Thomas Jefferson favorite heirloom apple, I thought we didn't get enough chill hours but I guess we did.:)

Pink Lady

Silvia

How interesting--I didn't know anything would grow here except the low-chill varieties. Is that the something-or-other Spitzenburg variety?

Yes that is the Spitzenburg variety and this is the first year planted and has a lot of fruit, the Pink Lady the same but is double in size. Pink Lady does very well in Arizona, I used to get it in the farmers market, that is why I decided to give it a try.
I like the looks of the apple trees, they are very ornamental and I have them in the front yard.

Silvia

Thanks again!

I'd really appreciate an update on the Pink Lady when the fruit ripens. I have been worried about planting a late-ripening cultivar for fruit quality reasons. (Months more to be exposed to bugs and disease, and lots of late-season apples just get mealy here - blech.)

Pink Lady apples are rarely for sale here, but I snap them up when I see them. I love that tart, spicy flavor.

Silvia,

I was also surprised that my Granny Smith apple tree had apples on it especially with the warm winter we had. Due to a lack of bees here at the time of the early flowering of my other apple trees only the Granny Smith was pollinated because it flowered later when the bees were active.

Lou

You are welcome Writersblock.

L in Fl - I will update on the flavor and the eating quality of the apples as they ripen.
My favorite are the Macoun but that is a no-no in my area.:)

Lou - That is good to know that your Granny Smith has fruits, I was wondering about the fruits in your orchard, remember the mixes that we planted, the apricots and pluots? from the ones that I planted, they are only now getting flowers, I don't know if they are going to get fruit. Next to harvest it is going to be the fig in the backyard, it is loaded! and I am harvesting avocados.

Silvia

Lou, I forgot about the lychees, not too many this year because of the warm winter.

My pepper plant keeps getting ripe peppers and is so tall!

Fig is loaded with fruit

And the avocado...

{{gwi:863609}}

Silvia

Sylvia,

My one outdoor Lychee tree froze to the ground with the cold snap we had. The protected trees didn't get enough chill hours to make fruit, so I had to buy my lychee fruits online this year. The tree that froze to the ground has sent up new growth from the roots so It's not dead, just set back a few years.

I'm still having huge problems with the nematodes attacking my fruit tree roots and killing the trees. So now I'm planting my new fruit trees in 30 gallon barrels sunk into the ground. Big difference in the few trees I started planting that way, they are now growing great and I will be planting all my new trees that way. This fall I will transplant the existing old trees that are still alive into the barrels when they go dormant.

Lou

Lou, I don't want to sound like I doubt you, because I definitely don't. I just want to learn. I always wonder how one knows it is nematodes for certain. Did you lift and inspect the roots on some of the stressed fruit trees? Or did you just rule out everything else? I think you must know for sure it is nematodes because all those 30 gallon barrels sound like a LOT of work and I know you wouldn't be using them if you didn't have to.

(I never knew that you could actually see nematode damage until Tom posted pictures of healthy and damaged roots in the Everglades currant tomato thread. Anyone interested, see link below. The photos are just about exactly half way down.)

Thanks!
Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Root Knot nematodes - scroll down half way for photos

Carol,

When the fruit tree dies and you pull up the stump and see the mess on the roots, you kinda get a good notion of what's eating the roots. This acreage was totally raw woodlands of pines & oaks, I'm on a hill with 90 foot depth of Alachua sugar sand (the water well driller hit bedrock after 90 feet of sugar sand). Not all areas of my land is infested with nematodes, but where I chose to put in the orchard is really bad infested.

Yes, digging the holes for the barrels is a lot of work but the difference with the fruit trees in the barrels and the ones in the ground is almost unbelievable. I find it's not all that much more work because I dug out the soil in the planting hole to improve it when I planted in the ground. Now I just sink a barrel in that hole and plant the tree using no original soil in the planting mix. I now get at least one to two feet of new growth on the tree in the barrel whereas I got less than one inch of new growth when planted in the ground and the tree would slowly die off and break back to a shorter height. I did a few side by side comparisons with two trees bought at the same time. One planted in the pot and one planted in the ground. The one in the ground grew to two feet tall from 3 feet tall (growth was backwards as it declined from a taller tree) the one in the pot is well over six feet tall. This has been an ongoing study since 2002.

Lou

Lou, thanks for all the details. I knew you knew what you were doing! So you did inspect the roots. That sounds like proof-positive.

I had to read twice and then laugh at the backwards growth in the side-by-side comparison. Went from a 3-foot to a 2-foot tall tree - too funny! But probably not funny at all when you're knocking yourself out to grow fruit.

I think it is great that you came up with a good solution that is proving effective.

Carol

Lou, that is bad news about the lychee, I know how it is. I am trying to nurse one of my atemoyas back to life from a freeze 2 years ago.
And you have a good idea about beating the nematodes, I had a conversation with a southern farmer and when I asked him about the nematodes and cures, he said that they as big producers for a church had tried everything, cover crops, neem cake, dry molasses,etc. And the only thing that works is some strong products only sold to farmers, not organic either. He said solarizing does not work either.
You are safe planting in containers, I do the same even planting squash. My trees already planted I keep adding leftover soil from the tomatoes after they are done, I have mounds on the fruit trees. It is sure not easy for us but getting fresh fruit is worth it!

Silvia

Hello,
We are also in Zone 9b and love winter squash of the variety we used to grow in Maine (mostly Burgess strain buttercup.)
We had had great difficulty here in Rotonda West with mildews - both downy and powdery. Does anyone have suggestions for resistant winter squash seed sources or "cures" for the mildews - we tried Neem Oil but it was not particularly effective.
Thank you all for any assistance.

Hi Pat

Growing veggies in Florida hot and humid weather is hard to do but not impossible, a lot of winter squash varieties do very well for me and eventually when older get mildews and everything else but I always manage to get a good harvest before it happens. Every year I grow a good and different varieties including the buttercup, right now I have stored for the season a number of winter squash to be used in cooking. When fall comes I will grow the smaller varieties.
In the begginning of the season I use Serenade, but that is not a cure all. Sometimes I use Green Cure or Actinovate depending on what I have. Other people use a combination of milk and baking soda but like I said eventually when older all the squash get some kind of mildews in my experience. I just think of the finnish harvest and is all worth it to me.:)

Hi Mary! Thank you for your beautiful card! And since you asked me about the taste of the Italian squash, all I have to say is that is tops! I especially liked it agrodolce Italian style, I do this with all my winter squash, cut in pieces, put kosher salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and sometimes a little bit of maple syrup. Because is so big, it is sold by the piece at the Italian market and I did sampled when I was there in risoottos and pastas.
I am in Jamaica this week and I already finnish reading by the beach a book 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From, very, very interesting! and I was happy to know that I have sampled most of them and the ones that I did not, are on the list to try. The good thing about the book is that it also gives you simple recipes and combinations of food to try...

Silvia