To those who love squash, this time of year is heaven. Summer squash are still producing but winter squash are coming on strong. Is that right? Honestly, I don’t really know.

I’m squash illiterate.  One taste of mush-o-la when I was a kid, and I’ve never eaten another squash of any kind. No zucchini in my muffins, no roasted acorns with brown sugar, no nothing.  Butternuts? Buttercups? Beats me. If there were a gardening game show, I would never win the grand prize because I can’t tell hubbards from cupboards.

Obviously, I’m missing something, but I’m just not sure what.  Or, am I? Squash fans, please tell me where to start in my brave adult exploration of squash. What do you like, how do you prepare it, what do you grow or buy? Or, if you’re a fellow squash unfan, maybe we can compare notes on that pesky texture problem.

Machinery Hill! Giant pumpkins! Pork tenderloin on a stick! Teen love on the Midway!

Home & Garden editor, Connie Nelson and I will be at the Great Minnesota Get-Together this Thursday, August 25. Stop by the Star Tribune booth between 3 and 4 p.m. - We can talk your ear off about gardening or direct you to the nearest pronto pup stand.

See you at the Fair!

PS: Connie begged me to bring CUKE-ZILLA to the State Fair, but unfortunately, my ginormous green friend started to soften and needed to be composted. Though I love the idea of touring local fairs with freaky veggies, I was more excited to turn CUKE-ZILLA into hamburger-sized pickles.

Super-sized veggies have fascinating powers. They inspire gardeners to write and tempt neighborhood children into a life of crime…

A post from Berkley:
I had a pumpkinzilla. It was unusually big and oblong, dark green, growing inches every day. It was happy. I put it on a little plastic cover so that it wouldn’t get it’s back side scraped on the ground, and the plastic was slanted so that when it rained it wouldn’t pool around the bottom and cause it to rot.

Rest in peace pumpkinzilla.

We are sorry for your loss Berkley.