Dangers in the Root Cellar

It had been nagging at me for a month or so.  Somehow, the thought never got close enough to my awareness to be acted upon.  But last week when the pest control folks came to spray my house (gasp, choke, do I have to?) to rid it of hobo spiders (we've seen 8 or 9 at last count) so that my husband could stop joking about using his sleeping bag to sleep in the car at night to prevent another nasty bite,  I had the crawl space hatch open to give the pest man access to where the hobos live when they are not marching around in our living space.

You may not remember that at the edge of the crawl space hatch is where my "root cellar" was installed last fall.  And somewhere in the very, back, back recesses of my memory, it seemed that squash was still tucked away in one of the bins.

One year in the root cellar is TOO long

Before the pest man began his toxic work, I checked.  Three squash, indeed, left from last year, not rotten, but with a funny, waxy, sticky feel grinned up at me when I slid out the bin.

Good enough for the chickens was my first thought.  NO!  I'll bake them and use them in a wonderful butternut soup recipe.  After their appropriate time in the oven, I tasted the golden flesh.  Not very good.  I guess the Things I get to do today include baking squash for the hens.


But the chickens didn't really take to it at all.  And any food that is left in the hen yard overnight is fair game for the jays and (can I make this small enough type to barely be seen?) the rats.  Now four days later, most of it is still on the ground in the hen pen.  Good sign that cleaning out the root cellar each spring must find its way to the Things list.

Sexy Squash!

Delicata Squash Blossom

It took me by surprise.  Maybe four years ago now, I was admiring various parts of the garden one afternoon and took a good look at a plant from the squash family.  It was a volunteer.  I didn't plant it.  I certainly had no idea what it would grow up it be.  So I gave it a good look, hoping that something familiar would key my memory and tell me its name.

That's when I saw it.  And, yes, it looked very familiar.   My jaw dropped.  Boy and girl parts on the squash (turns out it was a pumpkin, and its boy and girl parts were really big).

Cucumbers and melons don't do this, but squash of all kinds do, and pumpkins are spectacular.

So just in case you've not had your daily dose of sex education today, being sex ed. teacher is one of the Things I get to do today.  I don't suppose any of you will have a hard time figuring out which is which here.