The low for tonight is 1 and we have a frost warning… so it was time to pick the squash whether they were ready or not. After hauling them back from the garden using a wheelbarrow with a flat tire; cleaning the tops of the kitchen cabinets; cleaning and drying the squash (yes, I know “they” say you shouldn’t clean them, but I did last year and they did just fine, plus many were covered in mud, so I wasn’t having that float around the kitchen for two weeks while they cured); then going back out to pick peppers, eggplant, summer squash, beans, and tomatoes; I am tired.

Oh, and I weighed it all too. Because my curiosity as to how much I brought in today was stronger than my exhaustion with the weighing, photographing, and tracking. Turns out that I have over 80kg of veggies harvested today. Not bad at all!

About 65 kg of it is winter squash, and I’ve already harvested and stored about 10 kg. Plus I have some more volunteer pumpkins/crosses, to harvest and weigh. (They are against south facing rocks, so hopefully they will be alright and not get too frost damaged, I’m sure that they will at least do for thanksgiving decorations this weekend at the very least.)

I’m quite pleased with the squash this year and I plan to plant as many or more next year. I find that it’s a bit of work in terms of weeding early on in the season, but where I got them mulched early, they were pretty much a “plant and pick” crop for me. Yes, they get powdery mildew by late August, but they still seem to hang in there and produce fruit, so I don’t worry about it. Plus, apart from sorting, cleaning, curing and stashing in the basement, they are just about the easiest thing I store for the winter.

With the squash picked, much of the harvesting from the garden is done. This weekend, the weather is supposed to be nice, and I’d like to get the vines and (presumably) frost bitten plants removed. I still have some roots & greens beds which can be row covered for extended harvest, and I have broccoli, rutabaga, florence fennel, onions, carrots, and assorted others which will be harvested in the coming days, but this will likely be the biggest one-day harvest of the year. Within a few weeks the ground will be frozen solid. If I am lucky, I’ll get some lettuce out of the cold frame into December. There is a lot of work to do to before I can put the garden away for the winter, but I shall try to enjoy the work as I know that before too long, reading seed catalogues will have to give me my gardening fix.

Photos
1. Winter squash haul from the main veggie garden.
2. Peppers, eggplants, summer squash, and beans.
3. & 4. ‘Waltham Butternut’ Squashes curing on top of the kitchen cabinets.
5. Spots that were touching the ground are discoloured oddly … I am wondering if this is slug damage? It has been quite wet the past few days, but so far (fingers crossed) they do not seem to be turning into soft spots.

Question: Have you seen this kind of discolouration with the butternut squash before? Any idea as to what it is?