Grow - Harvest

The Birds & the Bees of Squash

Have you ever wondered how you can tell which of your flowers might become an actual squash?  I sure have.  Because, while the flowers sure are pretty, I’d much rather have a meal than a few flowers.
This is a male pumpkin flower…

This is a female pumpkin flower.
How do I know?

Because she is pregnant 🙂
When her baby is ready, it will look like this.

This is a male Acorn Squash flower…

This is a female Acorn Squash flower.

When her baby is ready, it will look like this.

Thankfully, the bees usually do a fantastic job of helping the men and women in our garden do their thing…which is good because I don’t really want to have to perform artificial insemination in our yard.  Really.  We’ll leave that to the pros.

Remember though, that even though a male flower will not become an actual squash, you can use him as an addition to a variety of other meals 🙂  I haven’t done this yet, but I will someday…
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3 Comments on “The Birds & the Bees of Squash

  1. Thanks Allison and Jody! I never knew either, so once I found out, I thought I’d share the wealth 🙂

  2. Great post! I have been wondering for quite some time how people know which blossoms to pick to eat as ‘Squash Blossoms’! Seems like such a ‘duh’ moment now that I see in your tutorial 🙂

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