Picking maxima squash for a tasting today, I noticed very clearly a trait that sometimes shows on good keeper fruits after having matured for a long time.
A white sheen or glimmer on the skin. It was particularly visible today when cutting into several of the fruits.
I have two guesses I’m curious to hear your perspective on:
That it is a sign that the fruit has fully matured. My reason is an experience that fruits showing this white sheen often start rotting soon after. Theoretically, my understanding is that means all or most of the starch in the fruit has been converted to sugars.
That the white sheen is somehow related to the relative sugar content in the fruit. Alternative guess is that the fruit produces the white layer in some other way like grapes, stone fruit etc.
The reason I’m interested in this trait as a potential sign of maturity is that it would help pick fruits that are ready to be eaten. A restraint in growing squash is that I can’t see which ones are good to eat. If I eat a squash too early, that could keep for months more, it will taste less good. If I eat it too late, well, it will start to rot. So when is the perfect time to eat squash when you have a diverse population?
What do you know about this phenomenon and what have you observed?
This is interesting and I look forward to hearing others thoughts. I can say I always find this on delicate squash that I’ve had in storage for a long time, and this would hold true to the idea that they are fully mature when they have this shine/waxyness as delicata are one of the first winter squash to be ready to eat. I have also found this on maxima squash that was almost a year old and certainly ready to eat and deliciously sweet.
I have no clue. I only have a (partial) understanding on when to harvest and storability per species. Some personal experiences and the papers I linked here essentially (Loy, Winter Squash week…)
Noticed that in 2025 on some really long stored (Tetsukabuto type not)… and these were excellent!
Will pay attention to that in 2026 and let you know if I understand a thing. Right now my guess this phenomenon may appear only in fruits harvested at full maturity… Others collapse before they reach the necessary rigidity , which is - another guess… to be confirmed! - correlated.
OOh! I’ve noticed this exact same thing happen with other squash speices.
I buy the green acorn squash from my grocery store so it can ripen at home. I notice when the color is nearly or fully orange I can squeeze the fruit and it gives a little with these white sheen micro-cracks.
and I can confirm that they have about a week or 3 of shelf life left before they start to rot. I always wait to eat my squash until this or a rotting point because I like my squash as ripe as possible because that’s when they have the best flavor (because dryer flesh concentrates flavors & sweetness).
However this is not true for Spaghetti Squash types as they become dry and nasty to eat like shredded spaghetti. These especially need to be wet so that the flesh strings are silky & delicious! They even taste good unripe from what I’ve heard, it’s a no brainer to cross these with Zuchinni types. However fully ripe Spaghetti squash that hasn’t fully dried yet (Like being stored for a whole year) is so delicious, the sweetness means I enjoy them without any sauce.
I’m pretty sure this applies generally for every squash variety & every species of squash. I’ve noticed it with Cucurbita pepo & Cucurbita maxima. However I did notice butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata) tend to wrinkle instead.
Here’s a Ripe (left) vs fully ripe cured (right) Kabocha squash. I always eat them at the fully ripe stage
Here’s Marina Di Chioggia Squash Ripe Fruit Color Change as it Cures (Left uncure ripe) vs (Right fully ripe cured). The one on the right taste the best, pre-spiced like Kentuck Fried Chicken flavored spices. Like shit damn the Italians knew what they were doing when selecting for flavor, easily the best tasting squash variety.
It is interesting to note that there does not seem to be a recognized word for this thing and no known explanation. And also that several of you have noticed the same thing in your squash too!
Maybe… altho it’s only noticeable under applied pressure like if you press the squash fruit.
With Squash fruits the term is usally curing but this is not curing.
Bletting is usually reserved for controlled rotting or specifically for softening.
What ever it is, it might have something to do with the moisture underneath?
I’m also curious, when squash is cut it usally has a self heal ability & can eventually seal up a wound (the bleeding taste like benzonates, hence why eating squash raw is not very appetizing). But what if in this stage the benzonate self-healing process is limited?
I’ve only ever heard this term in regards to medlar and there it describes a visually very different maturation process (the fruit turns into something like apple compot)
There are a lot of fruits that need to be bletted. Many are in the Rosaceae family, such as hawthorns and shipova, but others aren’t, such as persimmons.
And then there are jujubes, which taste best if left on the tree through the winter, which turns them into dried, shriveled brown husks that taste like caramel (instead of green roundish fruit that tastes like an almost flavorless apple). Do jujubes blet? I’m inclined to think that’s the best word for what they’re doing on the tree through the winter, but the result isn’t a softer fruit, it’s a dried-up, shriveled one.
And do we have a word for what bananas do when they ripen off the tree to an overripe stage (when the peel is totally black) other than “ripening”? Because I’m inclined to think “bletting” might be the best word for them ripening past the point that most people would consider optimally ripe, right to the stage before rotting. Lots of people will let bananas get to that stage on purpose, because that’s when they’re optimal for making frozen bananas or banana bread.
That’s what makes me think maybe “bletting” could be the word for any fruit (including a cucurbit) that tastes best when it’s being ripened to the point that it is slightly overripe and on the verge of spoiling.
I see where you are going and I am inclined to agree with you. I stumbled upon your use of the word because I didnt understand you were using it in a novel way.
I didn’t know that about Jujubes, I simply thought they just dry on the trees? Does frost actually make them taste better? and they absolutely need to be on the tree to blet properly?
I’ve had some dried grocery store Jujubes, they taste like sweetish drywall, nice but the texture is kind of eh. Dried apples taste much better.
Yea… that’s what I understood bletting as when I first learned about the word.
Hmm… I guess the technical definition for fully ripe is when the seeds inside are fully mature.
Speaking of Bananas, I’ve learned that Plantains are only good raw when they have turned completely brown and bletted, then they taste sweet & delicious! With Bananas, fully bletted taste bad (The flavor is bad even tho it’s technically sweeter).
I don’t know how that could ever be known in a diverse population. Unless maybe there is some universal qualities of all squash. If the population is diverse enough even seeds from the same fruit might yield varied properties as far as storage, flavor and so on in the next season.
I know I could never answer that question because I am a gardener, not a market grower or farmer and definitely not a squash breeder. Even if I devoted all of my garden to squash it wouldn’t be enough to arrive at a useful observation and in the meantime, we wouldn’t have anything to eat.
I do usually grow a few acorn squash and some candy roaster squash. In my limited experience it seems if they get that white appearance, especially on the candy roasters they are already past prime. So, maybe it is a universal squash trait.
I think there is but it’s again subject to how ripe you want it. I usually just wait till I notice the first signs of potential rotting, often the color changes slightly. I only tried grocery store squash of all 3 species.
You can see the difference between these 2 Maxima Squashes I got
Even the “blue” type winter squash will eventually ripen pinkish/orangeish and that’s when they are fully ripe.
If you simply wait till your squash shows the first signs of rotting, I think you is good to go!
The only exception is Spaghetti Squash that taste better when fresh because dry squash fiber noodles suck compared to fresh silky juicy noodles of Spaghetti squash with more moisture.
As for Pepo, there’s this problem where everyone thinks Acorn Squash are suppose to ripen Dark Black Green when in reality they ripen to a bright orange color & taste super sweet! Consumer demand & Grocery stores meeting the demand for green unripe acorn squash I guess is why they are sold green?
