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Free Food! Volunteer Squash

This past spring my husband and I started a small garden in our back yard. We didn't plant much since it was our first joint effort in gardening, planning to expand little by little over the next few years.

No need to get in over our heads, right?

Our plan was to only plant bell pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, and Seminole squash.  We ended up adding black raspberries, strawberries, concord grapes, onions, and bok choy.

Some of the plants produced very well.  Others, nothing at all.

One thing we didn't plant was butternut squash, but we grew it anyway.  It volunteered out of our compost pile.  Free food, y'all!

At first we didn't know what it was.  Well, we could tell it was some sort of squash, but we didn't know what kind specifically. So we waited to see what would happen.  Another plant joined it, and together they camouflaged what was a potential eyesore. Finally, the vine produced something that we recognized and we were able to harvest... Notice anything strange?  The seeds are in the neck of the squash rather than the bulbous part!  As far as I know, that is not normal. I continued cutting it into cubes, hoping that the mutation wasn't poisonous or anything.  (It wasn't.  We both survived.)

As you can see, it gave us quite a lot of squash. I haven't been very adventurous with cooking butternut squash, or any other winter squash for that matter.  I've roasted them, baked them, and made soup with them.  All with decent-to-delicious results.
What is your favorite way to prepare and eat butternut squash?
Linking to The Journey Back.  Join the fall linky party!
Posted by Joanne Mitchell at Wednesday, September 24, 2014