Lady Godiva Squash

I live in the high desert of E. WA where we have extreme heat and cold winters with a long growing season. I direct seeded into the soil in late May/early June 2017 and had at least 50% germination (3 seeds to a hill, and 1 or 2 came up in each). I planted on a south-facing hill in my front yard and mulched with aged rabbit manure shavings. These plants grew consistently, with drip irrigation and nothing else. This is a no maintenance plant. There were 5 to 6 plants, and they produced approximately 25-30 oblong, upright pumpkins. I'm just now cutting one open and there are immature seeds, but I scooped out one cup of mature seeds to place on my dehydrator. I haven't tried eating the pulp or meat yet, but am thinking I'll dry the pulp with the seeds, and bake the meat in a 400-degree oven today. If nothing else, I can mash it when cooked, then dehydrate for adding to winter soups. This is a great looking pumpkin, I love the unique color and am excited to try it's versatility of uses.

I had two plants. One produced round pumpkins with naked seeds and the other produced oblong pumpkins with shelled seeds. I have planted these before and this was the first time I got seeds with shells. My chickens loved them, but I may continue to plant two plants just in case. We love the seeds toasted with a little salt.

I've been so thrilled! I think I got 100% germination. (I started them indoors then hardened them off in the hoop house) The vines were very prolific & I LOVE the seeds. I like to let them sit & ripen more in my house (I live in zone 4b so it's a short growing season) until most of the green is gone. I have noticed, for me, that there are more mature seeds & the flesh is even pretty tasty. I just seed them & turn them upside down on foil in an oven at 400? for 30 minutes. Butter & salt! Since I have so many squash I end up giving some of the cooked ones to my animals (goats & pigs & chickens) They love them too. Last, but not least, the SEEDS! Oh my stars... I never have any to store because they are consumed way too fast.

I bought these from Baker's Creek last year (2015) and tried them out in my semi-shady (but still mostly sunny) pumpkin patch. They, along with my Waltham Butternut Squash did the best despite powdery mildew. Got a decent crop. The fruits were a little smaller than I expected (acorn squash size and smaller) and were oblong like the first photo above...not round like the second photo. I stored them in a wagon in the basement and I'm down to my last one now (it's late feb)...so they store well. The seeds are excellent...I rinse and let dry on a towel. I like them raw and unsalted in my morning cereal, but they taste best when thoroughly dry...it takes 4 or 5 days. I did try roasting the flesh in the oven. I found it gross, stringy and weird tasting...but the chickens liked it. I saved some to plant this spring...I also found some styrian pumpkins at the farmer's market last fall. Those squash were a lot larger, which meant more seeds. I'll be planting those as well.

The seeds truly are naked, tasty raw or roasted. I tried roasting some flesh, pretty good. Interestingly, the strings toasted up nicely, great crunchy bits to float on soup or add to salad. My plants got a slow start, but took off when the weather warmed up. They did get powdery mildew, common for squash in my coastal climate. Oh, the skins/rind is tough--which deterred the deer from eating them! Note these are BIG plants, they need lots of room. I will be growing these pumpkins again. These were drought tolerant with a heavy mulch layer.