I started growing butternut squash a few years ago.....what an amazing vegetable. Mine now comes up each year on its own (from the ones that rotted in the garden) and I dig up the young plants and share them with other friends! In past years I have had piles and piles of squash and they keep for months and months and months in my garage.

This year was so hot so early and we experienced severe drought (I didn't water my vegetable garden after about April) that I didn't get the yield of past years, and they matured really early so they started rotting early too (butternut squash have particular temperature requirements after maturity for maximum storage). However, a couple dozen made it into fall.

Butternut squash with sage makes an incredible filling for lasagna or homemade ravioli (with a sage cream sauce, yum)

I have to be the one to disagree with the homemade food items---I think about whos fingers were in the pot that tasted the items cooking---were the utensils used clean, did the cook have their head covered or is there hair in the food? I am very very picky about eating food prepared by someone else.

So, you grow all your own food?
Cause if you buy it at the grocery store, someone picked the fruits/vegetables (with perhaps dirty hair and hands), it was boxed and shipped loaded and unloaded (by people whose hair probably fell on it as they picked the boxes up with unclean hands), then it was put on display at the grocery store by the guy who probably didn't wash his hands after using the restroom, and touched and coughed on by 100's of other store customers.......
Or, maybe you just eat out? Where the food is handled by people who....you get the idea.

I agree, I worked in a restaurant for many years, you have no idea

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**Fraulein "Maggie" Louise 8/2/95 - 7/20/09**
*At Rainbow Bridge but Forever in Our Hearts*