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Musk pumpkin "Waltham Butternut"
Cucurbita moschata Duch. ex Pior.
1.05€
Ex Tax: 0.85€
Ex Tax: 0.85€
* Waltham Butternut Squash is considered America’s taste champion among winter squashes.
The “Waltham” butternut was bred in 1960 at the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station by crossing cultivated muscat-type squashes with wild African relatives. Interestingly, butternut is an extra-early type: it takes just 85–95 days from emergence to harvest. It is widely grown in Australia, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas—truly a food source across all five continents.
One of the world’s finest muscat squashes, it is sweet with a pleasant nutty note, dense buttery orange flesh, and the ability to keep all winter right on the floor in a hallway. Butternuts appeared in Europe relatively recently, and even in the UK they are still often seen as a novelty—unlike Argentina, from where these fruits are exported worldwide.
Butternut plants grow vigorous and long-vining. The number of fruits weighing 500 g to 1 kg can be impressive—up to 30 small squashes per plant. However, harvest on time: once seeds begin to mature, the growth of the remaining fruits slows down. Slightly immature greenish squashes will finish ripening indoors and turn the characteristic beige color. Do not pick “one-day-old” fruits at the milky stage for ripening—those will not mature properly.
In our conditions, this squash is best grown through seedlings. Sow seeds in containers during the first ten days of May. For germination until emergence, provide warmth: keep pots in a greenhouse warmed by the sun, or under a lamp, or near a radiator (in cold soil the seeds can spoil from within). Soaking is not necessary. Transplant seedlings outdoors when the risk of frost is completely over. Some growers mistake butternut for zucchini because of its modest size, but a cut fruit looks nothing like zucchini. Butternut has a thick straight “neck” with a “bulb” at the end; inside that “bulb” is a small seed cavity. The rest of the fruit is filled with tender orange flesh. Thanks to its orange color, butternut is also a rich source of antioxidants.
It’s easy to guess how many recipes exist for this squash: vegetable, meat, grain and pasta dishes, soups, purées and sauces. It is widely used for stuffing. Tender fruits become puddings, cakes, pastries, candied treats—and of course, it can be roasted or simply boiled.
A major advantage of this variety is that it does not cross-pollinate with the large-fruited and hard-rind pumpkins commonly grown here, including zucchini and pattypan squash. So if you save your own seed, worry about cross-pollination only with other muscat-type varieties (and there aren’t that many in everyday gardens).
1 gram contains 5–7 seeds.
The “Waltham” butternut was bred in 1960 at the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station by crossing cultivated muscat-type squashes with wild African relatives. Interestingly, butternut is an extra-early type: it takes just 85–95 days from emergence to harvest. It is widely grown in Australia, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas—truly a food source across all five continents.
One of the world’s finest muscat squashes, it is sweet with a pleasant nutty note, dense buttery orange flesh, and the ability to keep all winter right on the floor in a hallway. Butternuts appeared in Europe relatively recently, and even in the UK they are still often seen as a novelty—unlike Argentina, from where these fruits are exported worldwide.
Butternut plants grow vigorous and long-vining. The number of fruits weighing 500 g to 1 kg can be impressive—up to 30 small squashes per plant. However, harvest on time: once seeds begin to mature, the growth of the remaining fruits slows down. Slightly immature greenish squashes will finish ripening indoors and turn the characteristic beige color. Do not pick “one-day-old” fruits at the milky stage for ripening—those will not mature properly.
In our conditions, this squash is best grown through seedlings. Sow seeds in containers during the first ten days of May. For germination until emergence, provide warmth: keep pots in a greenhouse warmed by the sun, or under a lamp, or near a radiator (in cold soil the seeds can spoil from within). Soaking is not necessary. Transplant seedlings outdoors when the risk of frost is completely over. Some growers mistake butternut for zucchini because of its modest size, but a cut fruit looks nothing like zucchini. Butternut has a thick straight “neck” with a “bulb” at the end; inside that “bulb” is a small seed cavity. The rest of the fruit is filled with tender orange flesh. Thanks to its orange color, butternut is also a rich source of antioxidants.
It’s easy to guess how many recipes exist for this squash: vegetable, meat, grain and pasta dishes, soups, purées and sauces. It is widely used for stuffing. Tender fruits become puddings, cakes, pastries, candied treats—and of course, it can be roasted or simply boiled.
A major advantage of this variety is that it does not cross-pollinate with the large-fruited and hard-rind pumpkins commonly grown here, including zucchini and pattypan squash. So if you save your own seed, worry about cross-pollination only with other muscat-type varieties (and there aren’t that many in everyday gardens).
1 gram contains 5–7 seeds.
* Pumpkin jam.
Jam is best made from small but fully mature fruits. Wash them, cut into equal cubes (about 1x1x1 cm), blanch in boiling water for 1–2 minutes, then cool in cold water.
Blanching can be skipped. In that case, soak the pumpkin cubes for 10–12 minutes in a 1.5% baking soda solution, then rinse in clean water and cook.
1 kg peeled and diced pumpkin, 1.5 kg sugar.
It’s best to make a sugar syrup: for 1 liter of water, use 1.5 kg sugar. Split it into two parts. First, pour hot syrup over the pumpkin cubes and let stand for several hours.
Then bring the jam to a boil, simmer for 3–4 minutes, and let stand again for 6–8 hours.
Pumpkin contains very little acid, sometimes none at all, so before the second boil add the remaining syrup and citric acid (about 3 g), then simmer for a few minutes.
Toward the end of the third boil add vanillin and reduce the jam to the final consistency. The finished syrup should be clear, and the pumpkin cubes should be fully infused with sugar and become translucent.
