Pre-mature Spaggetti Squash

[photo61guy]

My neighbor gave me a spaggetti squash that he picked prematurely.
It is very slight green to white in color. Will this ripen further to yellow by letting it outside in the sun?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Not sure. It may continue changing color, but the flavor may not be there.

I allow all my winter squash plants to yellow and wither before harvesting. Also a good test is try denting the fruit stem with your fingernail. The stem should be fairly hard and not dent easily. Also the stem should break clean from the vine.

Let use know what happens.

Eric

[FieldofFlowers]

Sometimes you have no choice. My 1 and only spaghetti squash had to be harvested early because the borers killed the vine, especially the part connecting the fruit. It was yellow green and small. I put it in a paper bag and kept it by the window for about a week. It did turn yellow and cooked okay. But it probably wasn't the best, but it did make for a good spaghetti dish and stuffed into a bell pepper (also grown in my garden.)

[garden5]

Yeah, you may get it to change colors, but the flavor probably won't develop as much as the color will.

DDF, thanks for clearing that up about the finger-nail test. I thought it was that you poke your nail into the squash.

[applestar]

I have heard that you can eat immature spaghetti squash in the same way you eat zucchini and other summer squash, immature seeds, skin and all.

[DoubleDogFarm]

G5,

I've heard it both ways. I feel a dry hard stem that snaps clean, is a better indicator of ripeness.

Eric

[Dixana]

FOF you're gonna have to share that recipe! It sounds YUMMY!

[garden5]

I agree with you, DDF. I guess if a stem is hard and brown, no nutrients are really being fed into the fruit anymore anyways.

[FieldofFlowers]

FOF you're gonna have to share that recipe! It sounds YUMMY!

My grandma was the one who made it after I suggested it. Basically prepare a tomato based spaghetti sauce. (ours was canned I believe), some ground beef, left over canned chili sauce, cut the tops off the bell peppers and remove the seeds, microwave and prepare the squash. Mix the "noodles" from the spaghetti squash in the sauce, stuff the peppers and put them in a Crockpot. I don't remember how long she cooked them in the pot.

I'm sure you can add in other things, like Parmesan cheese, spicy peppers, etc. We added some sliced immature zucchini slices (the ones that would have otherwise yellowed and failed to bloom if left on the vine)

We had 3 medium sized bell peppers and that worked well, one stuffed pepper made one meal.