When Michelle came over to get the garlic bed done here she did not just bring her tiller. She also brought a bushel of squash along for us. Some standard small pumpkins, a few Dutch Crookneck mochatas, and this huge honkin’ thing. The name is Galeux D Eysines, and it is a fairly large C. Maxima squash. I had seen them, but have never grown them. Michelle grows for market so she has 15 or so varieties of just C. Maxima she grows, so saving seeds is fine ….. but this is unlikely to be what we would get if we grew it out.
Just cutting into them releases a wonderful aroma. The flesh inside runs 3-5″ thick, is a beautiful yellow/orange, and the thing was so large that once sliced open it covered the top of the dishwasher.
My roasting pan will hold a 20 pound turkey. One half of this squash and it was hard to get the lid down on it.
Half of it was done by 8 pm. The other half is in the oven now. The kids ate scoops of it, with butter and honey, as desert before heading off to bed. It tastes as good as it smells. If I have any complaint it is that the flesh is watery when cooked. Not really an issue. I scooped the meat into a large bowl and the water separated out from the flesh and could just be dumped down the drain. 8 quarts of finished squash, or about 14 pounds. That is minus the rind, seeds, and water.
Although this is a winter squash, it is not a long keeper. Generally they should be eaten or processed down within a few months of picking them. From descriptions I have read they generally run about 12 pounds. This one was nearly twice that.
<grin> Once again Michelle, thank you!
