Saturday, July 17, 2010

Cucuzzi Squash

First cucuzza/trombone squash of the season. I think the common names are interchangeable. In any case, it's not really a squash, but a gourd: The flowers are white, bloom at night, smell like honeydew. The vine runs like crazy: Right now it's gone up a six-foot pole, across the top of a ten-foot conduit, down the opposite pole and now is running across another trellis. The picture below is from a week ago. The vine has probably doubled in length since then. This squash hadn't yet set when I took the picture below on the tenth, so, mind you, this fruit is less than a week old! And now it's, what, forty inches long? Wow!
When the vine gets really big it can support several of these fruit at a time.
The flesh is perfectly white, crisp, and sweeter/nuttier than regular squash. I think it's superior to zucchini squash, especially raw.
I'm making squash enchiladas from Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen tonight: Corn tortillas dipped in a mildly hot chile sauce, fried, and dressed with squash and salty cheese.
Elsewhere in the garden... My metki cucumbers have started to produce, lots of hot peppers, peanuts are doing well, okra are up but weeks from producing, eggplants are doing well and finally starting to set fruit, tomato seedlings for fall are doing OK, grapes haven't started to color, limas are only just now flowering (got 'em in too late), the yardlong beans have started to twine, and sweet potatoes have the run of the place... Typical late-summer garden.
I need to get up the nerve to pick one of my watermelons!

2 comments:

Marina said...

That squash is incredible! It looks like it could easily feed a family of 4! Thanks for sharing, I don't think I'd ever seen this variety before.

Unknown said...

I picked one of them last night, didnt know when its ready. i made a dish with coconut,onion green pepper,little geeraka.lot of water,tasted good