#yellow crookneck squash

[inthecityofgoodabode]

August 2023: Graffiti, Hawk & Harvest

Seen while walking:

We went out to Plot 420 today to harvest & do some cleanup. We saw this hawk on the drive out:

Today's Plot 420 & 419 harvest:

[stumblngrumbl]

the volunteer garden gave me a good-sized yellow crookneck squash which was obviously hybridized with a bit of a cross with a gourd giving it a somewhat warty surface.

i cut a thin slice and tasted it, then ate it, verifying that this hybrid didn't have much cucurbitacin (hybridized squash can have more of the toxin but it's bitter and obvious)

the main body of the squash had lots of seeds so i scooped them out, but the skin layer was surprisingly soft and edible even raw so i kept it

combined with chopped eggplant from the garden, sauteed it butter & sunflower oil with salt and then added a couple cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

[lorenzokamerlengo]

Appetizers and Snacks Recipe Naan bread is topped with a creamy ricotta cheese blend and spiralized yellow crookneck squash in this vegetarian recipe that's perfect for brunch, lunch, or an appetizer.

[reimerseeds]

Yellow Crookneck Squash

[davidwidart]

Spiralized Yellow Squash-Ricotta Naan In this vegetarian recipe, naan bread is topped with a creamy ricotta cheese mixture and spiralized yellow crookneck squash. It's ideal for brunch, lunch, or an appetizer.

[brigiddeacon]

Stewed Yellow Summer Squash Yellow crookneck squash is stewed until tender, picking up delicious flavor from sweet Vidalia onions and salty bacon lardons.

[walkergerald]

Vegetables - Stewed Yellow Summer Squash In a stew that cooks yellow crookneck squash until it is tender, sweet Vidalia® onions and salty bacon lardons add flavor.

[losinnato]

Spiralized Yellow Squash-Ricotta Naan Recipe

Naan bread is topped with a creamy ricotta cheese blend and spiralized yellow crookneck squash in this vegetarian recipe that's perfect for brunch, lunch, or an appetizer.

[forestgreenivy]

First squash of the summer! A nice summer solstice gift from the squash box.

[evendimly]

Spiralized Yellow Squash-Ricotta Naan Recipe Naan bread is topped with a creamy ricotta cheese blend and spiralized yellow crookneck squash in this vegetarian recipe that's perfect for brunch, lunch, or an appetizer. salt and ground black pepper to taste, 1 lemon cut into wedges, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1/3 cup ricotta cheese, 1/4 medium red onion thinly sliced, 1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil or to taste, 1 pinch red pepper flakes or to taste, 1/4 red bell pepper thinly sliced, 1 naan bread, 1/4 cup shredded Gruyere cheese, 1 small yellow squash sliced, 1 teaspoon olive oil

[inthecityofgoodabode]

August 2023: Can’t Believe It Is August Already

A Goldfinch at our echinacea. They love echinacea seeds almost as much as they love sunflower seeds: 

Correction - Goldfinches at our echinacea: 

Tuesday’s Plot 420 & 419 harvest. I was glad to see those four Tigerella tomatoes & the plant was loaded with more fruit:  

The reason the birds are hiding in our backyard at the moment: 

[obsessivevoidkitten]

*cracks knuckles* I literally did crack my knuckles right before I started to type this. I can literally ramble about my garden and gardening in general, you have just opened up a giant post. The thing I am most excited about this year is strawberries, very excited they are a new addition this year and I pre-ordered some red and some white ones. They spread via runners so within a year or so I will have a nice huge patch of them. Strawberries are both the cheapest and easiest berry to grow, though not technically a berry. Another new addition is peanuts! I wanted something with a long storage capability as well as something high in protein, while also not being too difficult to grow, peanuts fit the bill. I am also going to try sweet potatoes in a larger quantity this year, last year I just had one to plant that had been donated by the food pantry and I just could not produce much with it and it was also crowded with normal potatoes. I am still growing potatoes this year, I saved some potatoes from my fall harvest and they are going to be good to plant towards the later half of March. I am excited to replant my purple viking variety but I also got my hands on the all mighty kennebec. Perfect ratio of starch to make a good soup potato or a good fryer, also high yields!! I also plant to grow carrots, cosmic purple and lunar white. Radishes are going to make a return but I am adding a yellow variety instead of just de 18 jours radish. Everyone who knows me knows I will be attempting corn again, we had such a good result last year and it gave us a lot of food, I would like to triple production to donate excess to the senior center. I am growing moonshine, glass gem, and of course the ever amazing and personally endorsed damaun ks super sweet corn. I had so much success with tomatoes that I am branching into new varieties. Yellow, purple, orange, everything but red really. Going to go with some micro dwarf varieties like orange hat and patio choice yellow, the regular sized plant cherries I will be growing include yellow pear and bosque blue bumblebee, regular size slicers will be sart roloise, and kentucky beefsteak. Last year I grew many many many extra tomatoes and donated them by the bucketful to the senior center, family, and neighbors. And I was only growing a couple varieties last year. Pumpkins will be planted again, moranga, Rouge Vif D' Etampes, and of course the flat white boer pumpkin. I grew a crap ton of the white boers last year and they were a wonderful food source and the extras I gifted to people for decorations. I would like to try burdock root if possible. I have plans to grow a bibb lettuce mix, little gem lettuce, and merlot. For cabbage I am just trying one variety, a faster growing one good for early in the year so I can start gardening sooner, red acre cabbage. I failed with beets last year but now armed with more experience I hope to tackle the mammoth red mangel beet, it can literally grow to sizes larger than a toddler. If I can grow these I will be able to feed many many people beyond just me and the elderly lady I care for. Seriously though, google them, they are H U G E. I also want to grow some much smaller albino beets. For squash, other than pumpkins, I am growing yellow crookneck, candy roaster, honeynut, lemon squash, and golden zucchini. Hopefully I can fend off SQUASH VINE BORER. I would have had a lot more success with squash last year had it not been for SQUASH VINE BORER. In my gardening, I have many powerful enemies. The squash bugs that resemble stink bugs, and have the same stink power, the swarming Japanese Beetle, cucumber beetles, tomato.... horn... worms... the ceaseless devourer, but only one is my arch-nemesis and that one is SQUASH. VINE. BORER. And, my absolute favorite veggie, the sturdy and vigorous veggie that never lets me down, the cucumber. Varieties this year include poona kheera, dragon's egg, and pick-a-bushel. With this wonderful variety I shall grow many pounds of cucumbers, especially the high yielding pick-a-bushel. I hope to donate many of these. Now, for flowers, we don't have too many, but we do have a few. They are essential in attracting and supporting local pollinator populations but also in feeding birds. I am growing a few different types of sunflowers, the birds and pollinators go nuts for them. Chocolate cherry, russian mammoth, short stuff, and double sunking. If you are a novice gardener I cannot recommend sunflowers enough they can take some serious neglect and bad weather, droughts, storms, heat. They are so great, the senior center took some cut blooms for decoration and I still had enough for the birds and enough to save many seeds. I am also growing marigolds again and nasturtiums, which are also edible. I also was gifted some celosia seeds to try. For green beans I am growing two bush varieties, cantare and jade II green beans, they have excellent rust resistance which was a big issue for me last year. For onions I am only really going to try one variety and that is borettana, it grows fast and somewhat small, good for a beginner. Sadly I cannot actually grow any root vegetables in my clay soil, so all the potatoes/tubers/peanuts/carrots/radishes/beets cannot actually be cultivated here. The clay soil is hard and compacted and I dont have compost and soil to soften it up. I wanted to grow them in tubs, and I have a friend helping me get some to grow in, but I still have to raise over 100 dollars to get enough soil and mulch to fill them all. I also still have to get the cabbage, onion, some of the corn, some of the sunflower, and some of the tomato seeds. I do have two tubs filled so I can at least plant several potatoes. I am going to grow as much as possible and exhaust myself in the garden because I have a lot of people that get food from me and I cannot let them down. Anyway I hope that answers your question, may have over answered, lol. I hope you have a nice day too.

[junkoonthefarm]

TOP GARDEN PESTS--WHAT WORKED + DIDN'T

Here is some good information from a survey that Mother Earth News did to learn more about what works, and doesn't, when it comes to limiting insect damage in organic vegetable gardens. They had 1300 gardeners from across the United States respond, so is pretty good. I've included 7 of the top garden pests and info:

1) SLUGS-- took top honors as the most bothersome pest in home gardens, with 55 percent of respondents saying the slimy critters give them trouble year after year. Handpicking was highly rated as a control measure (87 percent success rate), followed by iron phosphate baits (86 percent) and diatomaceous earth (84 percent). Opinion was divided on eggshell barriers (crushed eggshells sprinkled around plants), with a 33 percent failure rate among gardeners who had tried that slug control method. An easy home remedy that received widespread support was beer traps (80 percent success rate).

2) SQUASH BUGS-- had sabotaged summer and winter squash for 51 percent of respondents, and even ducks couldn’t solve a serious squash bug problem. Most gardeners reported using handpicking as their primary defense, along with cleaning up infested plants at season’s end to interrupt the squash bug life cycle. The value of companion planting for squash bug management was a point of disagreement for respondents, with 21 percent saying it’s the best control method and 34 percent saying it doesn’t help.

Of the gardeners who had tried it, 79 percent said spraying neem on egg clusters and juvenile squash bugs is helpful. About 74 percent of row cover users found them useful in managing squash bugs.

3) APHIDS-- were on the watch list of 50 percent of respondents, but the success rates of various control techniques were quite high. Active interventions, including pruning off the affected plant parts and applying insecticidal soap, were reported effective, but so were more passive methods, such as attracting beneficial insects by planting flowers and herbs. Several readers noted the ability of sweet alyssum and other flowers to attract hoverflies, which eat aphids. “We attract a lot of beneficials by planting carefree flowers in the vegetable garden, including calendula, borage, zinnias, cosmos and nasturtiums” (Midwest, more than 20 years of experience).

4) SQUASH VINE BORERS-- had caused problems for 47 percent of the survey respondents. The best reported control methods were crop rotation and growing resistant varieties ofCucurbita moschata, which includes butternut squash and a few varieties of pumpkin. TheC. moschata varieties are borer-resistant because they have solid stems. Interestingly, if you’re attempting to fend off squash vine borers, lanky, long-vined, open-pollinated varieties of summer squash (zucchini and yellow crookneck, for example) may fare better than hybrids, because OP varieties are more likely to develop supplemental roots where the vines touch the ground.

Many gardeners dump soil over these places, so if squash vine borers attack a plant’s main stem, the plant can keep on growing from its backup root system.

5) JAPANESE BEETLES-- Forty-six percent of respondents reported working in the unwelcome company of Japanese beetles, with handpicking being the most popular control method. Some gardeners grow trap crops of raspberries or other fruits to keep Japanese beetles away from plants. Several commonly used interventions — garlic-pepper spray, milky spore disease, pheromone traps and row covers — had high failure rates.

6) TOMATO HORNWORMS-- were of concern to 42 percent of our survey respondents. Bt and handpicking were the preferred control methods, and several folks commented that tomato hornworms are among the easiest garden pests to handpick (probably because they’re large, easy to spot and produce a telltale, pebbly trail). Many gardeners reported seeing tomato hornworms often covered with rice-like cocoons of parasitic braconid wasps. “I had a lot of tomato hornworms this year, but the wasps took them out! Just like in the photos online and in bug books!” (Mid-Atlantic, more than 20 years of experience). Gardeners named zinnias and borage as good companion plants for reducing hornworm problems.

7) CUTWORMS-- were a concern for 41 percent of respondents, and effectiveness ratings for using rigid collars (made from plastic drinking cups or cardboard tissue rolls) to protect young seedlings from damage were amazingly high (93 percent effectiveness rating). A common practice to reduce cutworm damage is to cultivate the soil’s surface once or twice before planting and hope robins and other bug-eating birds will swoop in to gather the juicy cutworms. Big, sturdy seedlings are naturally resistant to cutworms, so many gardeners said they set out seedlings a bit late to avoid cutworm damage.

[nancypullen]

Thrilling Thursday

Just kidding, absolutely blog-worthy has happened. It's 6 o'clock, I've already had dinner and cleaned up, and I'm in my jammies. That's right, I'm walkin' on the wild side.

In my defense, I'm wearing a kaftan - back in the day it would have been termed "lounge wear", and I am indeed lounging.

I headed to the gardens early this morning to try to get things tidied before the blazing heat set in again. It was still hot, still muggy, but I was able to pull some weeds and foof things up a bit. I can't stand a scraggly garden, and mine were headed that way. I feel so defeated when I look at my beds. I've used every trick in my arsenal, done copious research for my gardening zone and soil, and still I get weak, stunted plants. My lilac offered one bloom this spring and nothing since. My little hydrangea offered one bloom this spring and nothing since. My climbing rose offered one bloom this spring and nothing since. Anyone seeing a pattern? Remember my glorious gardens in Tennessee? I could make huge bouquets for the house and still have waves of flowers in the gardens. I grew everything - corn, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, cukes, pumpkins, and so on. Right now I have a beautifully healthy German Pink tomato plant that has produced over fifty blossoms since May, and not a single one turned into a tomato.

I have given it vitamins, water, pep talks and resorted to begging. Nothing. I've never experienced this in my life and I hate it. I honestly don't know what I'm doing wrong. Whatever it is, I'm doing it wrong in every flower bed. I think this house was probably built on a sacred Native American burial ground and the land is cursed. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. For someone who has treasured her gardens as much as I always have, this is heartbreaking. Know what I do when I feel defeated and that all is lost? Okay, besides drowning those feelings in chocolate. I set myself up for more heartbreak by trying again. A couple of days ago I opened a packet of pumpkin seeds, nipped them with nail clippers, and soaked the seeds overnight.

Yesterday I made little hills of soil in each flower bed and poked those seeds in all over the hills. We'll see how many sprout and then I'll decide who gets to live and spread their vines. I really need this win. I don't know what makes me think that this will work, nothing else does. I may be setting myself up for a huge disappointment. Oh, how I miss my gardens. BUT, because I am a lifeboat singer and eternal optimist (it always gets better, right?) I try to find little bits of joy.

When I watered and weeded this morning there were a few flower faces who were happy to see me. Back in Tennessee bees and butterflies were plentiful, I could often count two dozen butterflies in my zinnia patch. I rarely see a bee around here and I never see a butterfly. I don't know if it's because of what local farmers are spraying on their fields or if they're just scarce around here. Whatever it is, it's a real shame to see such an absence of pollinators. Enough boo-hooing about gardens. I miss being surrounded by summer beauty, but chin up, it's just 112 days to Halloween! We have to slog through another couple months of heat and humidity, but then we're rewarded with this...

*SIGH*

Due to the temps, I've successfully avoided cooking since the 8th. Mickey is down in Atlanta visiting his mom, and I'm happy with a tuna sandwich or a cup of yogurt for dinner. I broke my streak today because I had a craving. I love summer squash, specifically the yellow, crookneck variety. Normally I just cook it up with onions, salt, and pepper. Today I wanted something better, something decadent. Are you familiar with the good ol', southern potluck, Ritz cracker version of squash casserole? That's what I wanted. I sliced up the squash and boiled it for about 8 minutes.

I drained the squash in a colander and let it drip while I sautéed onion in that same skillet. While the onion cooked I mixed together a little mayo (maybe 1/4 cup), cheese (measure with your heart, but I'd use a cup),salt, a little sugar, and two beaten eggs. I pressed as much water as I could out of the squash, then squeezed it in a towel. You really don't want a watery casserole. Then I dumped the squash and the cheese mixture into the onions, folded it all together and put it in a casserole. Now comes the best part. Melt a tablespoon of butter and toss that with twenty-ish crushed Ritz crackers. Scatter that on top of your squash and pop it all into a 350 oven for about 30 minutes. If you're lazy like me, you'll open the rotisserie chicken you bought and just slice up a fresh cucumber for a veggie. Perfect summer meal. Terrible photo, but delicious spoonful.

Guess what I'm having for dinner tomorrow? Same thing, this time with no cooking! Women in lounge wear don't cook.

That is exactly what I look like in my kaftan. I don't look at all like a tea cozy, I swear. Mirrors are liars.

Other than crying over my gardens and cooking squash, I haven't done much of anything today. I did a drive-by at the library and dropped a few books into the book drop, then stopped at the post office and mailed some fabric to my sister so that she can whip up some pretty napkins for me. From there I dropped off an Amazon return and by then I was so close to Starbucks that I had to get an iced coffee. Big day in Denton. Tomorrow I'm starting a little project. I picked up this ugly picture at the auction.

Isn't it just begging for witches and ghosts? Maybe a couple of witches in a canoe out on the lake, another one on the bank with a fishing pole. You can see that it has a couple of spots on it.

If that blob was in the upper third of the picture I could just turn it into a moon. It'll have to become a ghost or maybe smoke from a cauldron. It'll be fun to figure out what it is. I'll paint the frame black and then stick it behind my desk with the rest of the silly stuff I do. When I die my kids are going to uncover a mountain of nonsense. That's going to be one interesting estate sale. I should probably add that before I ever apply paint to one of these old pictures I always check to make sure that it has no value. This particular print still has a tag on the back of the frame that says Turner Wall Accessories. In perfect condition it might fetch 20 or 30 bucks. With the spots and scuffed frame, far less. I won't be breaking the hearts of any collectors. That's enough from me today, I'm rambling and no one enjoys that. Time to feed the kitties and then lose myself in a book. Perfect evening. Sending out lots of love tonight, take as much as you need. I hope that if you're feeling disappointment (cough*my gardens*cough) that you realize that it's temporary. Whatever it is may never change, may never live up to your hopes, and it's okay. No one gets 100% of what they want in life. No one. If you take a hit in one area but can list five other things that make you happy, congratulations, you're winning! I'll bet if you make a list of what's right and what's wrong in your life, the happy side will have a longer list. I'm not making light of the serious stuff that life throws at us, I'm talking about the everyday, ordinary frustrations. It's important to keep those in the "minor things" category. That's enough of me. Go enjoy yourself. Celebrate the good stuff. Stay safe, stay well. XOXO, Nancy

[quandovocemoranorio]

Mediterranean Chickpea Pasta Salad This picnic-friendly salad features gluten-free chickpea pasta with a dairy-free dressing and Mediterranean-style roasted vegetables. 1 box chickpea pasta shells, 2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika, 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar, 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil divided, 1/4 pound fresh green beans trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces, 1 pinch red pepper flakes, 3 medium crookneck yellow squash cubed, 3 tablespoons chopped Kalamata olives

[racheldeagan]

Recipe for Summer Squash and Sausage Stew Summer squash, like green and yellow zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, give a delicious tomato-based stew more flavor and substance. Cajun Andouille sausage is also added, and Parmesan cheese is sprinkled on top. Serve the broth alongside a large slice of crusty bread for dipping.