All Squash Species (Cucurbita spp.) Have edible Leaves, Shoots, Flowers, Fruits, & Seeds. So long as they are not bitter all are above ground parts are edible raw or cooked.
Has anybody tried breeding Squash for the Salad Greens they can Yield? Or for the Tasty Flowers they make? How about the Nice Tender Shoots with Tendrils? I enjoy the taste of the most tender leaves raw but the texture on older leafs can get annoying (Especially Pepo Types, They typically have the most Spikes). Cooking Solved the annoying texture issue.
Seriously tho, Squash Greens have Potential to become a New Vegetable.
I also enjoy Squash Flowers (Especially in the mornings when they 1st open), Imagine if we Bred a Landrace for Bigger Flowers, Filled with more Sweet Nectar and Plants that produce a crap ton of flowers.
ALSO BIG QUESTION, can you taste cucurbitacin in the leaves to find out if you should cull the plant? Think about how this will speed up Landracing Squash! You don’t have to wait until it flowers and risk cross pollination with Bitter Squash, that way no more Sacrificing a Year’s Worth of Seeds, like how Lofthouse did.
Only problem is groundhogs and Deer, they Love Squash Leaves. Maybe they can help you tell which plants are not bitter? But I feel Squashbugs are much better for this instead.
I treat Squashbugs like my friends because they only eat Nasty Bitter Squash, Squash I wouldn’t want anyways right? They can detect cucurbitacin and use it for defense mechanism right? Just some Food for Thought hehe.
Anybody Breeding Squash this way? Who wants to work with me?
Squash bugs used to take put all my squash indiscriminately. I never noticed any correlation between squash bug attack and bitterness.
But then, I’ve never been in the habit of planting bitter squash.
Many people enjoy squash blossoms. One gentleman was upset and asking why he wasn’t getting any squash-- he lived them so much he was harvesting all his male blossoms!
Hmm Interesting. I think they prefer bitter squash but will flock to non bitter squash if none are around. I’m not sure.
About Squash Blossoms, if you got no Female Flowers at the moment, you might as well eat all the males until a female flower forms. Then leave a male to Pollinate or… EVEN BETTER Save the pollen of your male blossoms to use for later hybridizations! Just in case if no females appear.
Thanks for the recommendation, however Im staying with growing mixes of heirlooms. Really any squash blossom is edible, they are just in different sizes and petal shapes. Its an added bonus to have multiple and eatable parts of the plants. There are flowers to eat before the fruits, then the fruits, then the seeds. We mostly just expanded our type of harvest and learned new recipes.
Awesome! Which species did you find the most delicious? Did you notice any bitterness? I’ve noticed that the maxima squash with Bitter Seed Strings translated into Flowers with Bitter Centers. The Pepo Acorn Squash had no such thing, super delicious! Did you also notice some squashes actually had nectar at the bottom? It tastes sweet!
Nice! Stuffing blossums is something I gotta try. I’m not chef, I just eat the whole flower raw hehe.
I KNEW EXACTLY who the variety would be from. It’s the same guy who bred the Honeynut! I saw the videos about him discussing breeding squash fro stems as a Substitute to Penne shaped macaroni! So Glad the guy actually followed thru with it.
This also makes me want to grow Delicata Squash & Select for something Similar! Nice find!
Definitely pepo for tasty flowers. I have yet to try the leaf stems, the flower stems are good tasting too. Flowers were always picked in the morningtime and while they are open. I have seed from a zucchini known for good blossoms and its a vine type plant. I have tasted alot of blooms raw, its a good breakfast when out in the garden. Yes, a bit of nectar inside the flower base is a treat. Loads of youtube video of the growing tips getting harvested from pumpkin vines, another pepo.
On pepo, some of the leaf stems are spikey, especially the older stems which you wouldn’t want anyways. However the Young Shoots of Squash are DELICIOUS, raw or cooked! I eat them raw, they make such a fantastic green, I can’t blame the Groundhogs & Deer too much, they have nothing like squash in their forrest, so I get why they go bonkerz for Squash.
Smart! That’s the best time to harvest them! Right when they just open. Btw, do all squash happen to open up in the morning reguardless of species? I remember in the Luffa genus, Luffa aegyptiaca opens it’s flowers in the morning while Luffa acutangula Opens it’s flowers in the Late Afternoon. Was wondering if Other Cucurbitaceae Family Genera have something similar going on too.
Imagine Selecting/Breeding for that purpose? It be cool if the nectar could Increase!
So far as I can see, the flowers open in the mornings. The luffa grows in a different season. I have not been able to observe when their flowers open.
Selecting for nectar would be challenging, how to keep the blossom after taste sampling for nectar? And also choose between male or female bloom? Now im wondering if all the blooms are more nectar filled on one plant… or is it bloom by bloom?
I suppose you could just select for the male blossoms being particularly tasty, since you would probably want to keep the female blossoms on the plants to mature into fruit anyway. There are always a surplus of male blossoms, so any plant that consistently has tasty ones, you can could mark that whole plant to save seeds from and/or use as a father.
Oh no, sorry for the confusion, I meant the male blossoms also have a Nectar that’s sweet. I simply meant selecting for more heavy nectar male blossoms to add sweetness for the whole flower. Yea I wouldn’t want to eat the Female Blossoms cuz I want the fruit too!
Yea it’s the whole plant (That makes Tasty Male Flowers), I have not really observed bloom by bloom. However there do exist hermaphrodite flowers for Cucumis melo & Citrullus lanatus, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to find them in Cucurbita spp. as well.
Maybe, or I could just eat them & check that way
YEA! That’s exactly what I was thinking of! I’d especially select for the male blossoms that have more Nectar (Cuz some have no Nectar at all).
Yes, always extra male flowers to dine on, the female have the added bonus of a small fruit. Both are tasty even if they arent super sweet. I haven’t had a bitter one as well. Im just glad to enjoy adding them to an omlet or quiche, or munching on while in the garden.
Nice! Did you try the other species of Cucurbita flowers? They have different flavors.
Bell pepper? Well certainly not in texture. I’ve never noticed a bell pepper flavor, perhaps your cucurbita are very unique. It does a sweet floral vegetable flavor with pollen adding on flavor. IDK how to really describe the flavor other than Squash flower.
Flavor differences are subtle, pollen has a flavor, petals like faint squash, green vegetal, but refreshing. The blossoms are really good cut into ribbons and cooked with scrambled eggs or quiche.
Bake stuffed squash, if its zucchini on lower temps and inside a bread pan, so its nested and holds together. Roast the winter squash, with your oil of choice, I prefer olive oil, on higher temps so as to carmelize. It can be roasted and pealed and cut into chunks, or as a half, with butter, maple syrup, and sage. Dont drown in the syrup or the nuttiness of the sqaush is hidden. Let the flavors dance lightly. Pinterest has a zillion recipes with all kinds of flavors.
I see, so you kind of roast it like a stir fry veggie (But just stuffed)?
I’ll check out Pinterest, I’m no chef so I’m gonna have to start learning.
Oh I see, so Somthing like covering the Squash blossums in a Batter & then Stir Frying it. Nice, I’ve got Besan (Which is Cooked Dried & Grounded Mung Bean, Pea, or Chickpea powder). I’m sure it would go nicely.
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