Picking a Good Winter Squash, and Keeping It Till February

This is a busy stretch on the farm. The beans are coming off, the corn is next, the plough is out turning ground before it freezes, and somewhere in between we're pressing apple cider. Supper in late October has to be easy, and it has to keep. That's why winter squash earns its spot on our counter this time of year.

A good squash will sit quietly in a cool corner for months and still be sweet when you finally cut into it in January. A poor one goes soft in three weeks. The difference is mostly in how you choose it and where you put it once it's home.

Start with the stem

Turn the squash over and look at the stem first. You want it dry, hard and corky, a little woody, the colour of old straw. A green, soft or bendy stem means the squash was cut before it was ready, and it won't keep.

A squash that's lost its stem altogether is fine for this week's supper. Don't plan to store it. That little wound is where rot gets in.

Feel the weight

Pick it up. A ripe squash feels heavier than it looks, dense right through. If two of the same size are sitting side by side, take the heavier one. Light usually means dry or stringy inside.

Check the skin

Press your thumbnail gently into the skin somewhere it won't show. On a properly ripe squash it should barely mark. If your nail sinks in easily, it was picked young.

Then look at the colour, which tells you a lot once you know the variety:

• Butternut should be an even, deep tan, with no green streaks near the stem.
• Acorn should be dark green, nearly black, with an orange patch where it sat on the ground. A big patch of orange on the top or sides means it's past its best.
• Buttercup and kabocha should be deep green with dull, matte skin. A shiny one is usually underripe.
• Spaghetti squash should be a solid, buttery yellow, not pale or greenish.

A dull finish on most winter squash is a good sign. Shine tends to mean youth.

Skip any with soft spots, cracks, or wet, sunken patches. Little scuffs and bits of field scarring are nothing to worry about. Those are just the honest marks of a vegetable grown outside.

Let it cure

Squash from the field often benefits from a week or two of curing before it goes into storage. Curing toughens the skin and turns some of the starch to sugar, which is why a squash in December often tastes better than one in September.

If yours came straight from a garden or a farm stand, leave it somewhere warm and dry for about ten days. A sunny windowsill or a spot near the furnace is fine. Leave a bit of space around each one.

Butternut, buttercup and kabocha all do well with a cure. Acorn is the exception. It doesn't like the heat and is best eaten within a month or so.

Where to keep it

Once cured, squash wants cool, dry and dark: roughly 10 to 15°C. A spare bedroom, a cool basement shelf, or the floor of a back closet all work well. The fridge is too cold and too damp, and squash kept there goes pitted and soft. A cold garage is risky once the frost comes, because a frozen squash turns to mush when it thaws.

Set them in a single layer, not piled, and not touching if you can help it. Put a sheet of cardboard under them on a concrete floor. Then check them every couple of weeks. If one starts to soften or show a dark spot, cook it that day and take a look at its neighbours.

Rough keeping times, if they're stored well:

• Acorn: one to two months
• Spaghetti: two to three months
• Buttercup and kabocha: three to four months
• Butternut: often four to six months, sometimes longer

So if you're buying a few at once, eat the acorns first and save the butternut for the dark end of winter.

A simple way to start

When you're ready to cook one, the easiest way is the oldest. Halve it, scoop out the seeds, rub the cut side with a little butter or oil and a good pinch of salt, and roast it face down at 200°C until a knife slides through with no resistance, 35 to 50 minutes depending on size. Scoop it into a bowl, add more butter, a little maple syrup if you like, and some black pepper.

Don't throw out the seeds either. Rinse them, dry them on a tea towel, toss them with oil and salt, and roast them on a tray for about 15 minutes until they crackle.

If you're out our way on County Road 10, we'll have squash at the shoppe when we open in the spring. Until then, a few good ones from a local stand, picked with care and tucked somewhere cool, will see you a long way into winter. That's about as close to free food as a cold month gets.