Lemon Squash

First, it gets its name from the shape, not the flavor. It does not have a lemon flavor at all. I knew that but guess I hadn’t shared that with Vince. When we ate one last night, he said “I can’t taste the lemon.” Oh . . you won’t! And I explained that it just looks a bit like a lemon but the one I picked didn’t too much even look like a lemon.

I had ordered my seeds from Baker Creek and if you read the reviews, almost all are 5 star but a few folks said it didn’t have much flavor. I was very surprised to see that one of the reviews from last year was from a lady from my town. Most everyone has said that they grow well, are bug and disease resistant and will produce up until frost.

This was one of mine growing before the hail storm and they took a beating. I wasn’t sure any of them would make it so I went to the Baker Creek website to order more and they’re back ordered. Wouldn’t you know it?

I’ve read that you don’t want to let them get too big but, since this is my first year growing them, what’s “too big”. There was a small one yesterday, about the size of a lemon, so I picked it. One squash! Not enough to cook but I cut it up, along with some carrots, made some green goddess dip and we had those with our dinner. Raw veggies . . pretty healthy, right?

I kept wishing I could plant more seeds. I went online and found that Southern Exposure has them but I wasn’t going to pay $3.50 shipping for a $4 pack of seeds. I’d just wait til Baker Creek has more and order from them, and order other seeds I need for next spring. Then, I started thinking . . I kept a list of what I planted. I only have 4 squash plants. How many seeds did I use. I went back to this blog post when I started my seeds in February and found this:

Ahh! #8. Lemon Squash. From BC (Baker Creek). Planted 4! That means, if there are 20 seeds per packet, I must have 16 seeds remaining. I have my seeds in a big Rubbermaid, all organized in zipped bags. I found the squash bag. No Lemon Squash seeds. Then I remembered my little storage bench by the greenhouse.

Yep, that’s where I found a little plastic container with all the seeds I had started in spring, and I found the Lemon Squash seeds.

That made my day! I’ve planted a few more around the garden, mostly in spots where other things didn’t come up or the seeds were washed away. I saved a few of the seeds so I’ll have some for next year . . just in case I can’t get more but I’ll also try to let some of the squash mature and harvest my own seeds.

It makes me happy to know I potentially have a few more plants that will pop up and hopefully produce lots of squash. Now that we’re not eating sugary snacks, having something like squash or carrots that we can use with a low fat dip is very nice.