Potimarron and butternut squash

[Manon]

I have grown these for the first time this year and they've done really well . Do I treat them like ordinary pumpkins with regard to harvesting - leave them outside until the first frosts and then bring them inside to a cool dark place - or should I pick them now ( the butternut squash are a pale green and starting to turn cream ) ? Some of them are quite large already - much bigger than the ones you see in supermarkets. Thanks for any help and suggestions - any favourite recipes ?

[Jonzjob]

Don't know about the harvest, but they make lovely soup and go really well when cooked with chook pieces, like a pot au feu..

[mint]

If you do make soup, as Jonz has suggested, it's nicest if you roast them first as that treatment intensifies the flavour.

Mind you, after you have had your tenth bowl of soup, you might like to try to do different things with them!

My former neighbour used to bring them down to us one at a time in his wheelbarrow as they were too heavy to carry for any distance.

[rowland]

Hi

We cut them into cubes, brush with olive oil and roast them before using them in a risotto. Also very tasty if stuffed and then roasted. As Mint has said, soup gets boring after a while but it does freeze well.

[andyh4]

The squash should turn orange brown before being harvested.

Likewise it is still far to early to harvest the potimarron.

I would wait until end October before harvesting earth.

[Patf]

We haven't grown any this year, but an escapee from the compost heap has spread near our well. I trained it over the top of the well and it has produced some round yellow fruits, one the size of a small football.

I think it might be a cross beteen some yellow courgettes and a pumpkin that we grew last year. I've heard that they hybridise easily.

I picked it today, it seemed ripe, so we'll see. This size are good peeled diced and baked in a hot oven in olive oil, salted.

I've just remembered when in England daughter in law baked some courgettes in coconut oil - delicious.

[mint]

I think some chopped chillies or even dry chilli flakes add colour and give it added flavour.

Just to clear my head about what we are talking about, are potimarrons the same as potirons?

Perhaps the former are gourd shaped and the latter are just plain old pumpkins and are round?

[Cendrillon]

Agree, roast squash etc before making the soup. After cooking add a can of coconut milk before liquidising. This produces a really silky texture. Soup can easily be frozen. Great for lunch on a cold day.

[mint]

[quote user="mint"]I think some chopped chillies or even dry chilli flakes add colour and give it added flavour.

Just to clear my head about what we are talking about, are potimarrons the same as potirons?

Perhaps the former are gourd shaped and the latter are just plain old pumpkins and are round?

[/quote]

Sorry to be so insistent but can someone please, please, please tell me the difference.  I need to know in case I got given one of these and I need to refer to it by name when thanking the donor.

[Gardengirl]

I'll try - potimarron is a sort of big round onion shape, potiron is shaped like segments all round it, like big orange segments.

A French neighbour was most put out when I said I'd bought a butternut in the market and insisted that it wasn't any such thing, that was an English name and no French person would call it that. I invited her to check out the stalls the following week, didn't hear any more about it.

[Cendrillon]

"I think some chopped chillies or even dry chilli flakes add colour and give it added flavour."

Definitely Mint!

[Patf]

There's another one called the citrouille, which has finer segments than the potiron.

They're all very good for ground cover to keep down the weeds.

[Gardengirl]

Ah, now I thought the citrouille was what we know as a pumpkin - is that right?

[EmilyA]

Lots of "bootairnoot" in the markets here.

We saved the seed last year and have an enormous crop, but the seed is obviously F1 hybrid as the plants produced two butternut shaped squash and the rest are onion squash. They are rambling all over the garden including through the Magnolia tree which looks a bit unusual.

We do ordinary soup, Middle Eastern style soup, mixed vegetable jalfrezi, squash roasties (delicious) and squash dauphinoise.

Any other ideas welcome!

[Patf]

[quote user="gardengirl "]Ah, now I thought the citrouille was what we know as a pumpkin - is that right?[/quote]

I thought so too, it's what we had last year, looks like Cinderella's carriage. One link on Google says it's slightly different.

[mint]

Listen, guys, I had a look in Intermarché today.  The potimaron is the one with bright orange patches on the skin.

Then there is the flat patty-pan one but, although I made a mental note of its name, I have now forgotten it[:-))]

I, too, think citrouille is a pumpkin.  There is also an expression, j'ai une tete (sorry, can't do the circumflex accent just now) comme un citrouille.  It means I am a bit distracted, I can't get my head around something, I have forgotten it, etc etc and so, you see, that expression applies to me very often these days!

[andyh4]

For what it is worth (ca 40€) my dictionary says that Potiro. n and Citrouille are pumpkins and that Potimarron is a Red Kuri squash (never heard of it? then Google is your friend - ps Neither had I heard of it).