Our last salad of the season.

We went a bit crazy last week eating salads, but I knew the season was coming to a close. I pulled the rest of the lettuce over the weekend and it’s now in the compost.

And, as my dill was getting ready to form seed heads, I decided I wanted to over-indulge in the leaves before they started turning brown.

And……

I couldn’t disappoint mon mari on Fish Hell Night,

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Now….

The Mystery of the Cucurbits is solved!

After I posted about the mystery veg growing in my potager, I got an email from my friend who had given me the seeds.

She assured me that she, as well as her parents had always harvested and saved seeds from year to year and never had a problem.

She said that she might have accidentally combined seeds but not to worry, they would produce what they were supposed to produce.

So……

Her experience says that the seeds will grow true.

My casual surfing said that they will produce mutant offspring.

We’re both right!

We’re both wrong!

According to this site the cucurbit family is divided into 4 groups. Melons and cucumbers are a different genus, so no hanky-panky there.

The plants within the groups can be cross-pollinated and will produce mutants.

The plants from different groups cannot.

Check out the site for the details – it’s not technical….

The quick version is that acorn and spaghetti squash can breed with patty pan and summer squash (zucchini / courgette) but not with butternut or pumpkins.

Butternut can breed with some pumpkin but not all.

So this is the mystery veg.

Yes I picked it. (The other thing the site said is that the mutants likely don’t taste good.)

I put a cherry tomato and a large onion with it for comparison….

As you can see, even though it started out smooth like a zucchini, it was developing the ridges of an acorn, and the stem looks like an acorn, but it was growing like a zucchini – fast.

Then I cut it open. It was white on the inside, like a courgette.

That’s Guapa’s paw.

I can’t be outside without careful doggie supervision.

I had planted 4 of the acorn squash – the other 3 are producing what look like patty pan….

Sort of….

The plants are so healthy I couldn’t bare to pull them up.

Watch this space for further developments…..

This is what we get to look at from the kitchen and balcony.

Want to come for breakfast?
If you want nutrition information, try this site: Calorie Count