A Thanksgiving Harvest

Greek Sweet Red Winter Squash

I've trialed and re-trialed many varieties of winter squash and pumpkins in my quest to find a variety that was sweet and flavorful when grown in the challenging Kihei climate. Most seeds produced picture perfect squash that were bland and flavorless.

Greek Sweet Red and Sweet Kikuza were the tasty super stars of my 2010 spring and summer gardens. Greek Sweet really is sweet and has a classic pumpkin flavor. The vines grow up to 40 feet - about 10 feet longer than Muscade de Provence or Marina di Chioggia. They produce an abundance of flowers and more fruit per vine than any variety of squash or pumpkin I've grown so far. From 3 plants, I harvested 11 squash ranging from 4 to 8 lbs. I let them turn color on the vine and they didn't need additional time in storage to develop a sweet flavor.

I harvested the Greek Sweets over the weekend - they were the last and best harvest from my summer garden. Finally a winter squash that's tasty enough to make pumpkin pie.

Seeds are available from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Happy Thanksgiving!