#cucurbita

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Thursday 31 October 2024

A display of autumnal pumpkins at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden Hyde Hall, Essex, showing the huge diversity of cultivars in Cucurbita pepo.

Jill Raggett

[haveyouatethisfruit]

Kabocha

(cucurbita maxima 'kabocha')

Also known as kabocha squash or Japanese pumpkin

Not to be confused with Kent pumpkin

The kabocha is a Japanese winter squash that has a sweet flavour and fluffy texture. Freshness is not a factor for this guy as after harvesting it takes up to another three months for it to reach peak ripeness. This process starts out with two weeks in a warm place after which it is moved to a cooler place for another month. During these two periods the starches convert to carbohydrate content, bringing out the sweet flavour and changing the texture from tough to smooth and soft. If you like butternut squash for its sweetness, I'd urge you to give the kabocha a try as well.

🎃 Reblog to share a fun fruit and to increase sample size! Check out even more interesting fruits here or in the list of all polled fruits. 🎃

[los-plantalones]

🎃 autumn gourds.

[cofiifii]

igdkufugxbk kvufzu

[botaniqueer]

New harvests!

- A pretty zucchini! This one is Cucurbita pepo ‘Pantheon F1’

- Capsicum pubescens! A lesser known species of pepper that grows around the Andes and are able to tolerate cooler and shadier conditions than other peppers. This one’s seed packet was labeled “Hairy Bolivian Pepper, red” I think? I also have another variety of C. pubescens called Brown Rocoto growing. I’ve been trying to grow this species for a while but kept botching them and this is the first time I’ve gotten ripe fruit! They’re apparently more temperamental than regular peppers starting out.

They’re also weird in that they have hard black seeds that other nightshades don’t commonly have! They’re also a little “meatier” in texture than other peppers. I took a small nibble of a raw one and my mouth definitely also burned quite a bit for the next 15 minutes or so. :P

[crudlynaturephotos]

[coffeenuts]

[stumblngrumbl]

smattering of squash & gourds from the volunteer garden (these grew voluntarily from non-sterile compost i spread over a spot on the land that i filled a low place with dirt)

the longer orange ones feel very gourd-like - very hard and not very heavy

the pumpkin looking ones feel like they're actually pumpkins (or similar squash) which is nice

with all volunteer or planted-from-harvested-seed cucurbits (cucumbers & squash) it's important to taste a bit of the fruit raw before you bother cooking it - the original plants before domestication are somewhat poisonous and those genes are still in the plant, waiting for a hybridization event to get mixed back into production, and unless you only have a single cucurbit plant in your garden chances are that the fruit will have hybrid seeds... which grow into plants with strange-shaped fruit that may or may not be poisonous

not saying don't eat them at all - but before you commit to cooking it, taste just a little bit of the fruit. if it's bitter, toss it - don't eat it. i'm not saying it'll be super yummy (i dislike raw squash flavor) but it shouldn't actually be bitter. if it's not, carry on and cook it, enjoy!

[thebotanicalarcade]

[vigorous-botanist]

Poured out an old bag of seed mix with climbing annuals when my hornbeam hedge died. Look at 'em!

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Thursday 12 September 2024

The cultivar Cucurbita pepo 'Solara' (courgette, zucchini) has a compact, bushy tendril-free habit and here is being given additional protection by the use of cold frames. The yellow skinned courgettes are produced over a long period from July to October.

Jill Raggett

[haveyouatethisfruit]

Pattypan Squash

(cucurbita pepo, var. clypeata)

Also known as scallop squash, custard squash, pâtisson or ciblème

Let me start off by saying that I did not know these were edible, I always thought they were ornamental, but the pattypan is a summer squash that is apparently mildly sweet, with a flavor not dissimilar to zucchini/courgette (cucurbita pepo, var. cylindrica). The disc-shaped fruits come in many sizes as well as colours and its name has various origins, with ''pattypan'' referring to the shape of a pan specifically for baking patties and the French ''pâtisson'' deriving from the Provençal word for a cake made in a scalloped mould. They supposedly taste best when still small, developing a more potato-like flavour the larger they get, personally I wouldn't mind that.

🎃 Reblog to share a fun fruit and to increase sample size! Check out even more interesting fruits here or in the list of all polled fruits. 🎃

Suggested by yesthatsatumbler

[los-plantalones]

secret squash stash 🎃

[botanyone]

Can unexpected changes happen in the process of plant domestication?

Today, to feed ourselves, we just need to go to the nearest supermarket and select the fruits and vegetables of our choice. But have you ever imagined how hard the food search was for our ancestors? Well, this process, which for us is practically unconscious, was costly for a long time for them, who not only needed to actively hunt and search for plants but also identify what was actually…

[botaniqueer]

When you sow everything too early (yet again) and you wind up with squash blossoms. Also, bonus immature zucchini ovary that wasn’t pollinated (no bees or wasps in my apartment unfortunately:P) so I popped it in my mouth.

I don’t expect them to be able to do this!! They’re just hanging out in small nursery planters.

[crudlynaturephotos]