I put my winter squash, Taybelle acorn and Hi Jinx pumpkin in on June 11th. My garlic harvest was about a month early for all varieties and I have already harvested the pumpkin and am waiting for the acorns as they took longer to put out female flowers and set fruit. I did find, however, that both the acorn and the pumpkin dropped polinated and un-developed female flowers when they had set as many fruit as they could carry. For the pumpkins that was three per vine, one of the acorns has three good sized ones and the others have 4 or 5 each which I expect won't be overly large. Some are very dark green with hard skin and others are still a lighter green and soft. I did break off two of the acorns accidentally and am glad that I can go ahead and eat them. One of the summer squashes I planted, Heirloom Yellow straight neck, did not taste good if harvested too early. Thanks for all the good information. I am anxious to get the squash harvested so I can begin to prepare the soil for the main event, garlic.

For consumption as a winter squash, let them ripen until the vines are dead. They may be as big as the market ones now, but they are likely far from ripe. Depending on the type you may expect some green striping to develop. I wouldn't expect them to turn golden, just creamy with with some green markings. Possibly a good idea to remove the ones that you think won't ripen in time. If they're small and tender without yet developed seeds, you can eat them like summer squashes. I try to guide the vines to unoccupied spaces when they get out of control, but other times you just have to cut them off. Be firm and take control.

I harvested one Delicata yesterday. This being a warmer than average year I thought maybe they might be ready. It was terrible. I didn't even bother cooking it. I could tell by the taste, color and texture it was no good. The outside color seemed mature enough but looking again I found there was no orange on the skin. There should be some background pumpkiny orange patches. Same with the Acorns I have grown, those should have an orange patch where they sit on the ground. Anyway, my Delicata vines still have abundant green leaves and live vines, although they are in severe decline. The stem on the squash that I harvested was hard but still green. Live and learn, wait til the vines and all leaves are dead and there is orange on the squashes and the stems are grey and dry. October.

I'm thinking of everyone. I was supposed to use my antique (1990, owned it since then) Miata until Halloween. Yesterday, I went to shift into first to take off at a light. It went into gear, but the wheels didn't move. Stuck in gear. In the middle of a VERY busy road. In rush hour traffic. Because it was stuck in gear, and wouldn't go into neutral, I couldn't push it. Sigh. I called the police immediately so they could direct traffic and help ameliorate congestion. Got a tow truck. Got the car home. And all modes of transport into the city were unavailable at that point, so I gardened, and decided to ride in with my son today, and ride home on the train today. Wow. Rode a different bus to the train station than typical because of Friday traffic, and hoof it down Broadway. Wow the mouths of the people on that bus were awful. It's typically fun camaraderie. Not today. Then, getting down Broadway was, um, interesting. Apparently, everyone evacuated to Nashville and bar hop. So many drunks to wade through. Ugh. We live in this city to raise our families, we're not interested in the party crowd. I thought the train would be better since I'd be riding with two friends, but a fourth joined us and the discussion was, well, raunchy. I MUST fix my car tomorrow. I was so ready for peace and quiet, I walked from the train station, a mile and half to gain my composure. Got to Starbucks and had a cuppa and took a deep breath. Much better. Watched videos on how to rebuild my shifter and ready to do it now. We'll do it tomorrow afternoon. In the sunlight, rather than the dark.