Today I get to enjoy one of the best rewards of gardening and that is the eating. I grew quite
a variety of winter squash and pumpkins this year and some of them needed to cure for a few
months to reach their optimal flavor. It's been about two months now and today I'm going to bake
one of each of the varieties of squash and pumpkins I grew this year and do a taste testing.
So let's take a look at the varieties that are in the taste test today. So I've got Autumn Frost,
this is Honeybaby butternut, this is On On it's a Japanese pumpkin, this is Seminole pumpkin,
this is our Grandma Bensman's heirloom pumpkin, this is Centercut it's a tromboncino type squash,
and lastly Pastila Shampan- this is an heirloom winter squash. To make the taste testing fair
I prepped these all the same way- basically split them in half scooped out the seeds
and bake them in the oven at 350 till they were tender enough to stab with a fork. Let's dig in.
So I'm starting off with Autumn Frost you can see here that's what it looks like after it's baked
very very sweet very rich but an almost floral aftertaste to that one, high moisture to that
flesh quality and silky smooth there's no strings at all to that. And next we well next
we've got Seminole and this one is so soft I can barely pick these up and flip them over
without them falling apart, seems to be a lot of moisture content in that one too. That one tastes
like pumpkin- truly like unsweetened pumpkin pie filling now there's not a lot of sugar there there
is very high moisture content in that flesh but I think that would make really good pumpkin pie.
Next is this little Honeybaby- this is like a little personal size butternut squash
and I love these but they don't store super well not like a normal butternut at any rate
but that is so sweet
so smooth very very creamy you would not have to add any sweetener to that
no stringiness at all that would be delightful for custard or baked goods or any kind of sweet
application. I think you'd it'd be hard to use this in a savory pumpkin recipe.
Now I've got the Pastila Shampan which I'm really curious about- you can see this monster took up
my whole baking sheet. I have not tried these yet, my dad is claiming this is one of the best winter
squash he's ever eaten-- we will see. And I can tell you just from cooking this there was a lot
of liquid that came out of this it was floating on the baking sheet when I pulled it out of the oven
I do not like that... ah
So I had a thought with the Pastila Shampan that perhaps I had got one of these squash that
were not quite mature by the time harvest came because it was a very very long season variety
and we had frost before all of the squash had fully ripened, so I cut up another one
baked it and I'm going to give it another shot and see if this one's any better.
Nope. It's really strange because the name literally translates to champagne candy
so I was expecting something a little sweeter. I think this would be good in a more savory dish
because there's very little sweetness here and there's a chance that this still was not at peak
maturity. So I have not fully given up on this one and I would love to hear from someone with a super
long growing season who has tried this variety if your taste experience has been any different,
in the meantime I'm going to be dubious about further flavor assessments from my father. So
here I've also got the Centercut tromboncino and with this one I just cut up sections of the neck
and roasted them you can see here the bottom part where the seeds are there just wasn't going to be
a whole lot of flesh there once I scooped out the seeds so I didn't bother with baking those.
So we will give the neck part a try and this one is significantly lighter in color than the other
squash you can tell. Hmm it's a little stringier than some of these other varieties it seems to
have a very high moisture content but this one too I think would be really tasty in a more savory
application so if you were doing something like a spiced squash soup or something along those lines
I think this would be a really promising choice and what's interesting about this center cut is it
as I mentioned it's a tromboncino type so it can be harvested immature and used as you would like a
summer squash or zucchini or you can let it mature to this golden bronze color and use it as a winter
squash and it is massively productive this this plant like took over the world this past summer.
One other thing I will say about this variety I tried some of these right after picking before
they had had a chance to cure and mature for a while and I was really repulsed by the flavor
and they've improved significantly since sitting in storage for a couple of months.
Next I've got On On Japanese pumpkin now for those of you who like to try new varieties
you may have to wait a year or two before this one is readily available on the market. So I
am a trial seed manager for vegetables annual flowers and herbs which means
that sometimes I am growing and evaluating new varieties several years before they hit the
market and that is the case with this pumpkin. I will say I've tried this one already this is one
of the very first ones I baked out of the garden and it is so good I would be shocked if it is not
widely available within a couple of years now it has this really beautiful dark orange flesh
and like many Japanese pumpkins it has this very unique dense texture so much less water content
than many of the other squash and pumpkins but very smooth completely stringless and almost like
velvety in texture it's really interesting and it is sweet it has very high sugars
but not overwhelmingly so and combined with that sweetness is this almost like chestnutty deep
really like a richness of flavor and I've made some pumpkin custards and
pumpkin pies with this one and honestly the only pumpkin or squash I've ever had
that has rivaled this one is our Grandma Bensman's Pumpkin which I'll talk about in
a minute. But overall this variety is definitely one of my taste favorites.
And last but not least is the Grandma Bensman's Pumpkin. Now this is one of my personal favorites
it's perfectly sweet very dense very rich flesh and grandma Bensman's makes some of
the best pumpkin pies I have ever had. Now the story behind this one is a lot of fun-- the seed
for this pumpkin was given to my sister by her grandmother-in-law and there were some seeds that
she had gotten from a faith healer in Indiana somewhere and had kept growing ever since and
I wish I could track down the history of this before Grandma Bensman got a hold of the seeds
but it's incredibly well adapted to our area, very productive, very early maturing, stores we've had
them store for a year with no loss of quality and as I mentioned amazing flavor and textures. So my
sister grows these every year and saves the seed and it will be one that we will continue to grow
for years and years and years to come and hopefully pass on to our children and anyone who
wants to grow the seed. But as I mentioned this one and the Japanese pumpkin are definitely my
favorites this year for a fantastic pumpkin pie. So now I know which delicious pumpkins and squash
I will definitely be growing again and which I will not. Be sure to drop a line in the comments
below-- what is your all-time flavor favorite pumpkin or winter squash? And be sure to subscribe
to my channel Growfully with Jenna for more tips on gardening variety recommendations and of course
taste tests. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time!