# What is going on with butternut squashes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2009, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-butternut-squashes/521093 "2009-12-13T10:09:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-butternut-squashes/521093/1 "2009-12-13T10:09:21Z")
Let me bring up something that’s really puzzling me. I love butternut squashes. I make holiday pies with them because they are much better than pumpkin. Also, I like to roast them, & then mix in asiago cheese and roasted garlic for a side dish with dinner. When squeezing the juice of a roasted squash out through cheesecloth (to make pie), I would always wind up with bright orange-stained hands, & stained cheesecloth, from all the beta-carotene. One squash could easily make 2 or 3 pies because the flesh was so dense and intensely flavorful. Starting last year, butternuts are completely different. The flesh is watery and pale, like a summer squash. It has almost no flavor at all. One squash, of the same size as before, barely makes one pie. Is this happening anywhere else? (I’m in California.) I figure that either: a) the squashes are getting crossed with other cucurbitae, which every gardener knows they will readily do, or b) farmers for some reason have chosen to plant a different variety recently; maybe it ripens earlier or is rot-resistant or uses less water, or c) they are being grown in soil depleted of something vital to their butternut-ness. However, in an online conversation I once had with a squash farmer, I was told that growers rent bees to pollinate the squash, and they tent-over each variety separately one at a time so that the bees can’t cross-pollinate. I don’t know – anyone have a WAG? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-butternut-squashes/521093/2 "2009-12-13T11:47:44Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > I don’t know – anyone have a WAG? I’ve purchased both good and watery/tasteless butternut this year. There seems to be no way to tell the difference from the outside. I’ll WAG that the same weather that [ruined the pumpkin crop](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pumpkin18-2009nov18,0,5196858.story?track=rss) also did a number on the quality of butternuts. > [@](#): > > When squeezing the juice of a roasted squash out through cheesecloth (to make pie) I use a [potato ricer](http://www.google.com/products?q=%22potato+ricer%22) for that. It’s a lot easier, quicker and neater than cheese cloth or, god forbid, the Victorio strainer. The best ones may be had for about $5.00 at an antique/junk/Goodwill store ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-butternut-squashes/521093/3 "2009-12-13T11:48:12Z")
Start by asking your local grocer. Or, your state college should have an agricultural department that may help you. Last, I’d bet you could Google-up a board of squash growers. In the least, a farming board. I believe each state has a farm bureau… ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-butternut-squashes/521093/4 "2009-12-13T12:58:42Z")
I wasn’t expecting responses so quickly! **Squink:** I didn’t think that it was likely to be connected to the pumpkin crop problems, until I poked around a little more and found [this.](http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pp160) Here’s the salient point (bolding mine): \* "Downy Mildew Symptoms appear on the foliage as pale-green to yellow, angular spots, with gray-tinged spore masses on the undersides of these spots. Severely infected leaves become chlorotic, turn brown, and shrivel. **The fruits are rarely affected directly, but fail to color properly and are usually sunburned and tasteless.** Spores are readily wind dispersed. Prior to planting, choose a variety with resistance to this disease. Consult with the UF IFAS Cooperative Extension Service for recommended fungicides. See Plant Pathology Fact Sheet PP-2: “Downy Mildew of Cucurbits” ([Plant Pathology - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences - UF/IFAS](http://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/takextpub/FactSheets/pp0002.pdf))."\* So you may well be right. By the way, I don’t use the cheesecloth to _rice_ the squash; I use it to remove **nearly all the fluid** from the flesh so that you get a dryish paste which you then thin out again with half and half. 🙂 That’s the way I was taught to process squash for pies. (The juice you get, with a little sugar and ice, is marvellous to drink.) **Jinx:** Good idea! I’m off to do that too. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-butternut-squashes/521093/5 "2009-12-13T14:44:33Z")
Just as another data point: all the butternuts I’ve purchased this season have been from local farmers, and they’ve all been delicious. If it is a new variety that’s been planted in recent years, you might have better luck acquiring your squashes from your local farmers’ market. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-butternut-squashes/521093/6 "2009-12-13T16:38:26Z")
Since this is also a food questions, let’s move it to Cafe Society for their answers. **samclem** Moderator, General Questions ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-going-on-with-butternut-squashes/521093/7 "2009-12-13T17:23:00Z")
To echo MikeS, I had two (organic) butternut squash from our farm share and they were delicious, flavorful, bright orange and everything you’d want a butternut to be. The two butternut I’ve bought in a supermarket have been sad, horrible, pale imitators of squashness. The origin of those squash is unknown but they were bought at a large regional market that ships stuff all over and buys from large retail-based farm concerns, not small local guys.