pumpkins

I was amazed at this annual squash display in the village of Slindon, there is a pop-up cafe this year too - in the church where we had tea and delicious cakes. You can buy pumpkins, marrows and squash in all sorts of weird shapes, sizes and colours. 

Harvest

We harvested the butternut squash from the allotment this weekend. Much better than last year, we harvested 30 HUGE squash. They will keep us in soup supplies all Winter.

More squash

This is the first drawing of the squash I did that led on to the 'packed' illustration.

I've now found out more about growing these from seed - they are known for being promiscuous! Apparently I should pollinate them by hand if I want to retain the variety as they can cross-pollinate, then I would need to put an elastic band on the top of the flower to stop any insects crawling inside. Sounds like a bit of a palaver to me. I haven't had any problems before and I rather liked the shock of all the strange shapes growing. We tried some for lunch yesterday, they were yummy and, as we're still here, not poisonous!

© 2008 nicky linzey

Packed

My allotment is packed with all these different squash this year which is very strange. For the past 2 years I've grown butternut squash which I love, I've collected the seeds from them and grown them from these seeds, which is what I did this year. So I was more than surprised when no butternut squash grew - only all these weird and wonderful varieties. Apparently, as I've now found out, if you keep using the collected seed, they revert back to their source as they are a hybrid. So I'm laden down with all these fascinating shapes and colours but not sure if they're edible!

© 2008 nicky linzey for Illustration Friday