Oh, lovely Thelma!

[me&thegals]

Please excuse my rhapsodizing! I am just gaga over the squash and pumpkins in my garden and would like to plug one of them: Thelma Sander's sweet potato squash.

I got the seeds from Seed Saver's Exchange. They were going to be my final shot at searching for an edible acorn squash, which I find to be generally stringy and bland. These are the most prolific squash I have ever grown! They are lovely golden colored, larger than a typical acorn squash and have a tapering end. I found NOT A SINGLE one with squash borer damage and the vines withstood the usual attack of other squash bugs. So, I had to prepare some for supper last night before selling them at market tomorrow. While they are not as flavorful as some of the other squash varieties (the dark orange ones), they are the tastiest, smoothest-textured acorn squash I have ever eaten. My 8 year old, squash-despising son asked for seconds!!!

So, as you drool over squash seeds for next, consider giving Thelma a try

 

[obsessed]

Good to note. How many plants did you have and how productive?

Thanks

 

[me&thegals]

Hi--I planted out 1 packet of seeds, which don't tend to contain very many from SSE--maybe 20? So probably about 5 hills (it's hard to tell with the squash garden being an absolute jungle right now). I picked only about 1/4-1/3 of them for market Sat and got 26 squash... I could be wrong and will post again later if it turns out to be much different from that.

 

[DDRanch]

Hey Me,
How about some pictures? I would love to see them.

Anne

 

[me&thegals]

Sorry to be so tardy, but I have no pictures. I have incredibly slow dial-up and an ancient computer. They are a creamy-tan color, have a longer tapering end than a typical acorn and the usual ribs. Best to look up a SSE exchange catalogue.

I also want to highly suggest the Musquee de Provence (think Cinderella's carriage) and the Amish Pie Squash. If you are looking for great cooking and baking squash, and lots of it, these are amazing! I cooked up one of my green (I thought unripe) Amish Pie Squash), but even the green ones are completely ripe inside! I got 20 lb of cooked and pureed squash. 20 lbs!!! I've made 4 pies, plan to make about 8 loaves of bread for a bake sale and I will have barely dented the bowl. I will make yeast bread, another pie, soup, waffles and STILL have more left over!

The MdeP has a very red-orange flesh--beautiful. The APS is more typical squash orange and a bit drier. Still beautiful. Just passing this on...