Brûlée Butternut Winter Squash
Botanical Name: Cucurbita moschata
Description
93 days. Sweet and creamy, this mini-butternut matures early making it ideal for northern growers. Aptly named for the French dessert Crème Brûlée it is a delightful and healthy comfort food on a cold winter day! Bred by Michael Mazourek’s innovative breeding program at Cornell, it is productive, uniform, and stores well into the winter. Palm-sized squash are smaller than standard butternut making them perfect for a single serving. Super easy to cook – simply bake halved in the oven and serve with butter or coconut oil. Like standard butternut, these squash plants need plenty of space for their sprawling vines. HM
Growing
Growing Instructions (for USDA Zone 5b):
Winter squashes are grown during the summer, harvested in the fall and stored during the winter. This squash has sprawling vines and needs plenty of space to grow. Direct sow seeds outdoors (1/2-1” deep) around June 1st (plant 2-3 seeds together in patches with each patch spaced 2’ apart in rows 3-4’ apart). Days to germination: 4-10. Thin seeds to one plant per “patch”. As with all cucurbits, squash plants do not like their roots disturbed during transplanting so if you are starting seeds indoors, use biodegradable pots. Start seeds indoors May 1st – ideal temperature for germination is 85°- 95° (use heating mat). Squash seedlings are sensitive to damping off fungus so keep germinating seeds on the drier side and use a fan (set to low) to provide air circulation. Once 2 leaves appear, grow plants at 72°. Do not let plants become potbound. Transplant (pot and all) outdoors around 6/1, spaced 2’ apart in rows 3-4’ apart. Squash plants like soil with a lot of organic matter so add compost and/or decomposed manure to soil prior to planting. Protect seedlings from cucumber beetles and squash bugs by covering seeds/seedlings with row cover fabric at planting and leave it on until plants are flowering. Protect squash plants from deer and groundhogs.
Harvest:
For winter squash, harvest before frost when skin is hard enough that you can’t push a fingernail into it. Store winter squash at 50-60° for long-term storage.
Seed Saving Instructions for gardeners:
This variety belongs to the species Cucurbita moschata and will cross (by insect) with all other Cucurbita moschata squashes (including Butternut). Isolation distance is ½ mile (or you can save seed and see what you get!). Minimum population size: 6-25 plants but you can save seed from fewer plants if the seeds are for your own use. Always select seeds from the best plants. Scoop out seeds from mature fruit, rinse and dry seeds.
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