Allotment Monsters

Lurking beneath a tangled mass of vines I found some strange looking things hiding at my allotment. Whatever could they be? Monsters?

Ah, silly me! Fear not for these monsters are Sibley squash.

I love growing pumpkins and winter squash, I go giddy with delight selecting seeds in spring. This is a new variety for me and I’m a big fan already. Sibley squash are from the ‘Hiram Sibley & Co’ seed catalogue, USA and I got my seeds from Real Seeds online. They are hands down the biggest winter squash I’ve grown so far beating some mighty impressive butternuts in previous years.

I warn you, I planted just two plants and they really do like to sprawl which is just fine with me, I love that wild pumpkin patch look but not so good if space is limited. Sibley starts fruiting early in the season giving them a good chance to ripen before the nights start drawing in.

The skin colour is a mix of pale green and slate blue which makes them slightly easier to spot amongst the leaves and vines, they’re meant to store well over winter (which is one of the things I look for with winter squash) and become noticeably sweeter after the New Year. That’s good to know seeing as I plan to use some of these monsters in cakes!