Squashes

Yesterday was Halloween and many people carve a face into a pumpkin at this time of year to create a Jack-o-Lantern. It didn't surprise me much to read that about 90% of pumpkins are grown for decorative use as opposed to being eaten.
Having said that, it's been a really bad year (as was last year) for growing squashes of any kind. This was sad for me as it was the first year I had grown butternut squash plants from seed. The seeds and subsequent seedlings were really healthy and so I looked forward to abundant squashes however "the dull, wet weather we experienced this summer made it a bad year for growing butternut squashes," says Gardening Which magazine. "They really didn't like these conditions and most varieties performed very poorly. Many fruits didn't ripen fully: the skins remained greenish and the flesh was pale-coloured and very poor tasting."
This is exactly what I found. Of the three plants that were planted out, each plant produced one smallish fruit. The last of these I made into a curry last night. The flavour wasn't up to much but it's not put me off growing them. The seed I used is called Hunter which apparently should be able to cope with our climate and came out top in Which's Best Buy trials. I'll try again next year and see if I can do any better.