This newsletter is a couple of weeks late, as you’ve already gotten your first Winter Squash from us and there’s none in your boxes today. But we’ve just recently begun harvest in earnest, and September is the busiest month for winter squash on our farm.

Despite its name, Winter Squash is planted at the end of spring, grows all summer long, and is harvested in the Fall. Neither the plants nor the fruit can tolerate freezing weather; the “Winter” in their name refers to the time of year that they are most commonly eaten.

Winter squash (including pumpkins) are in the “Cucurbit” family along with Zucchini, cucumbers, melons and watermelons. They are native to North America, where they have been grown for thousands of years and were a critical food source during long winters. They are widely adapted to a number of growing regions, but they prefer drier climates to wet ones.

Here at Terra Firma, we have experimented with many different varieties of Winter Squash, but the standouts over time have been Butternut and Delicata and those are the only ones that we grew this year. Delicata — creamy white with yellow and orange stripes — is arguably the sweetest of the squashes. It’s also the most versatile for cooking since its skin is edible. The only downside to Delicata is that it does not store nearly as long as Butternut and some of the other squashes.

That’s not to say our Butternut squash is not sweet. Thanks to our climate and growing practices, it is just about the sweetest, creamiest Butternut most people will ever eat. We allow the squash to fully ripen in the field and then partially cure before we harvest it. I have noticed that much of the Butternut in stores has a green tint to it that means it never actually ripened.

We grow a lot of Winter squash at Terra Firma — often close to 100 tons annually on 8-10 acres. It’s a big job to harvest it all, as every individual squash must be cut off the vine and then collected into bins. It takes our crew most of the month to get the job done, as there are always other tasks to do as well.

Many years squash harvest starts right after Labor Day, but this year only a small amount was ready in early September and we didn’t start in earnest until last week. Big heatwaves during harvest can damage the crop, as the leaves are usually dead by the time we start and the squash are sitting in the direct sun. But the very hot weather we had back in July doesn’t seem to have impacted this year’s crop in any negative way.

Once the squash is harvested, we leave it in the bins at ambient temperature until we sell or distribute it. Delicata is generally sweet enough to eat within a week of harvest but Butternut needs to “cure” for longer, and gets better with age. For this reason, you’ll see Delicata in your boxes at least a few times before get any Butternut.