Seed Catalogs and Crookneck Squash

One of the good things that happens each cold, snowy January is the arrival of seed catalogs. Well, good and bad. They are jam-packed with summer—fruits and flowers and vegetables and leafy trees; pumpkins the size of volkswagons and watermelons so red and juicy your mouth waters just looking at them. A seed catalog is a wonderful escape from the plain white world of winter. But it can also manufacture discontent. Three months of mostly cold, dead weather lie ahead of us before we will see growing things.

In addition to the seed catalogs that come in the mail, one can find all kinds of online seed catalogs. I spent some time yesterday browsing the Seed Saver catalog online. It contains primarily heirloom varieties and the wonderful pictures make your mouth water. In the squash section I found the Pennsylvania Dutch Crookshank squash that we grew last summer—squash so big that each one provides us with at least four meals. They are supposed to have a curved neck, but most of ours have straight necks. That’s because they matured in the evergreen tree that stands next to our garden. The vines climbed up the tree, blossomed, set fruit, and there they were, four or five large squash hanging in the tree. Of course hanging has a tendency to stretch and straighten out a neck so you will notice that only one of the squash in the picture actually has a crookneck.

But the straight necks taste just fine—especially when sliced into a casserole with apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and few other mysterious ingredients that Jeri adds.