Bitter 'Festival' squash

We have grown the 'Festival' variety of acorn squash for quite a few years and enjoyed them as a vegetable to accompany different meat dishes. On Nov. 15, we baked two halves of this squash, using brown sugar and butter as the topping. We could not swallow the first mouthful because it was so bitter. Needless to say, that squash went into the compost.

This is a first. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Steve Mitchell

 

Might have something to do with saving open-pollinated seed, if that is what you have been doing.

 

I'd be inclined to go with what Ron says, also. That's most likely the reason.

If you have purchased new seed each year, was there any change in irrigation or rainfall in this past season? Generally, less available water in a season will yield more bitter flavors in many vegetables.

 

Thanks,

We started with new seed. It's possible that watering may have varied between plants. There were 8 plants (a mix of Hubbard squash, 'Festival', butternut and pumpkins) and each plant had its own 'spaghetti' line for a water supply.

Steve

 

I say this reluctantly, but if you're growing heirloom varieties, it may have been your "new" seed as well. Several of my "new" heirlooms seeds were crossed this year. Mostly tomatoes and not squash, but it's possible. I think that it might be possible that the more popular heirloom seeds get, the more seed producers there may be for one supplier etc...Just a thought.