Immature butternut squash

Hmm, I'm thinking my butternut squash experiment is a winner.  I don't have room for regular butternut squash vines to ramble all over the garden, nor do I have room to store mature butternuts through the winter.  I've been musing about squash growing for ages.

My friend who has a large kitchen garden on her property out of town has already harvested over 80 mature butternuts -- she started early in the season.  That's a LOT of squash for the two of them to eat, even if pies are part of the equation....Maybe I'll get some of the "extra!"

But I've been growing a miniature climbing butternut from Renee's Garden.  It's a new release and is attractive on a low trellis in front of the garden.

I was thinking that it might be tasty green (as well as being resistant to squash vine borers, the nemesis of Southern summer squash growers).  My experience with summer squash is 3 or 4 squash, and then the vines collapse (at least without row covers, Bt, foil, picking out the borers, etc.).

immature miniature butternut squash (with blueberries for scale)

And what a lovely alternative these immature butternuts have proved to be.  They're not zucchini or yellow squash, to be sure, but have a delightful dense texture and faint butternut flavor when harvested green.  Delicious sauteed with onions, mushrooms, and garlic, or flash-roasted.

Even when they're bigger (having escaped the gardener's notice) -- at about 4 inches long (close to their "mature" size, any way, instead of 2 inches (like these), they're delicious, too.