Sowing good cheer with squash

Written on October 11, 2013

In the fall, a wide range of squash varieties become available on the Québec market. We’re attracted to pumpkins for their lantern shape and the taste of their flesh. Add to these pleasures the flavors of acorn squash, musky gourd, buttercup squash and pumpkin squash, plus their orange flesh with all the vitamins you could want – an autumn and winter delight!

And the seeds – how best to enjoy them?

Pumpkin seeds may be popular, but the seeds of most other squashes whose flesh is edible can be eaten as well. There are even green pumpkin seeds whose skin is so thin they don’t need to be shelled, and can even be eaten raw. Another possibility, if you like, is lightly browning them and including them in a stir-fry, or simply adding them plain to yoghurt or muffins. That will enhance not just the taste of those foods but also their nutritional value, since pumpkin and squash seeds contain good quantities of many minerals and essential fatty acids. Discover our top tips for roasting pumpkin seeds.

Harvesting seeds to grow your own squash

Here's some interesting information to know before collecting squash seeds for sowing. First of all, you need to know the biology of these plants. Squashes produce separate male and female flowers on the same plant. As they are pollinated by insects, cross-breeding between two varieties of the same species is possible. So what might happen is that the seeds of the initial variety produce a plant whose fruits vary in appearance. One solution? Carry out flower pollination yourself and make sure that bees and other critters aren’t invited.

Once harvested, seeds should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place.

The giant-pumpkin secret

There’s something of this principle in connection with giant-pumpkin competitions. To get increasingly enormous fruit, producers carry out manual pollination of their most promising subjects, and after the competition make sure to collect seeds from the winning giant fruit. Those seeds, once they’re sown in the spring, will need air, humidity and heat to germinate. Then, to give the runner a chance, the seedling is placed under a dome warm enough for easier growth. Adding milk to the fruit to help it grow is a far-fetched fable: what’s involved is genetics and good care. As is the case, in the end, with all cucurbits – a family that knows how to feed our pleasure!

Need inspiration for cooking with squash and pumpkin? Check out ours squash recipes.

Read also:

Hand pollination: when a horticulturist becomes a bee