You folks up in Maine have been on my mind this winter - seeing how we seem to have pretty well lucked out and not gotten REALLY dumped on with snow, but they keep showing the storms making a beeline for you. Hope it hasn’t been too bad.
Speaking of butternut squash - I have been experimenting a bit - I still have 6 (well, now 4) from October 2009. I just cooked up two yesterday, and they are STILL good... 15 months and counting - every couple of months, I try a couple in between eating last year’s.
Another of my experiments for this year will be going vertical... Seems in more recent years, most everyone around here has sacrificed yield to have bush everything... I too have dropped back to where the only pole items I grow are butterbeans. (well, they do cage tomatoes too). I am going to get some of the heavy duty 16’ long and 5’ high stock panels, and put them up with steel ‘T’ posts. That way, I can avoid all the bending to pick them, and can just burn off the vines in the following winter. So, I’ve got my Kentucky Blue Pole Green Beans, Telephone Pole peas, Garden King Lima seeds all ready. I will try some cukes and maybe some squash too.
Will let everyone know how that goes...
One of my daughters does a lot of the heavy work around here as well as processing lots from my garden. Recently told her that hubby and I would plant this year and then when school gets out, she can take over. Her reply, “well, in that case, don’t plant enough beans for the whole town.” Guess I need to get those beans up to waist level.