Our garden was abundant in its production of yellow squash. We are not real big fans of yellow squash. So, we thought of other ways to use yellow squash rather than cooking and eating it ourselves. We tried giving some of it away - not very successful, seems that other folks also had an abundance of yellow squash. Joey ate a bit of yellow squash. We played games with yellow squash. Finally, I let the squash grow and grow to see just how big it would get. It got pretty big - not championship size or anything, probably about 12 inches or so.
They say if squash gets big it gets too hard to eat and is good for nothing. My big dogs would disagree! Big, old squash is the best! Gus will take the squash, bite off the stem end the way the old men in black and white movies bite off the end of a cigar and spit it out before lighting up. He then takes little nibbles off that squash savoring each bite. Gracie hovers around him until he is distracted, swoops in, snatches the remainder, and chomps it down in as few bites as practical. Gus is left wondering what in the world just happened.
I've looked inside big, old yellow squash. It has a kind of pumpkin look to it. There is a thick hard outer shell, with fiber and seeds inside. The seeds look a lot like pumpkin seeds. I bet yellow squash and orange pumpkins are first cousins. In fact if old yellow squash was round it would probably be yellow pumpkin.
The dogs like it a lot. But there is one thing about letting them eat mature yellow squash. They can't have it 24-36 hours prior to agility class, or let's just say you might be embarrassed by their performance.
Gus with his prize
Gracie with Gus's prize...
We had squash like that, too, in spite of the squash borers that tried to kill our plants. I didn't realize you're supposed to pick it while it's small, so they all ended up huge and old and sort of tough to eat. I wish my dogs liked squash, but they preferred the perfectly good cantaloupe. Even my chickens were not fans of the squash. :(
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