So, what do you think these are?

[cschick]

This past spring, I planted seeds (from a seed package purchased at Target) which claimed to be zucchini.

The plants look like your basic zucchini plants, but the squash they are producing are not. They are extremely light green, almost white, in color, and get fat before they get long. The shape is almost exactly like spaghetti squash, but the color/texture is throwing me off. Are spaghetti squash pale green before they're ready? (And do they not separate into strings if not completely ripe?)

The insides have more of a texture of butternut squash, but not the flavor. The other possibility I've found is banana squash, although once again the color is wrong.

Also, each plant seems happy to produce a single, large squash at a time, so I guess that I'm not overrun with these . . .

Oh, yeah: the ones I've picked and experimented with cooking seemed to have fully mature seeds in them. So, the squashes seem mature even though they are still pale green. One of the plants is planted near cantaloupe (the only other squash-like thing I'm growing) but the other is on the opposite side of the house, and they are both producing the same odd squash, so I don't think that cross-pollination is a factor.

[dillonandmarasmom]

What seed company are they from?

So, they are like a bloated, oblong, white zuucchini? Can you taste them raw? Or, are they very hard? Zuccs are soft and can b e eaten raw, so that's one way to determine if you've received a strange variety of them.

Can you snap a picture?

[Owen'nZoe]

Have you tried picking them while they are still small and immature? Do they taste like zucchini? There are so many different varieties of zucchini, I think it could just be a variety you aren't familiar with. It actually sounds kind of similar to the Lebanese zucchini ("kousa") I grow. It is very pale green, and a bit drier than the zucchini we see in the grocery store. Some varieties of Lebanese zucchini are long and slender, some are more rounded. The variety I have this year ends up looking like a pale green eggplant if I let it grow too long.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by dillonandmarasmom

What seed company are they from?

So, they are like a bloated, oblong, white zuucchini? Can you taste them raw? Or, are they very hard? Zuccs are soft and can b e eaten raw, so that's one way to determine if you've received a strange variety of them.

Can you snap a picture?

Yes, kind of like a bloated, oblong, white zucchini. But someone at the office brought in monster white and green zucchini this morning--about the same size I've been letting these things get to--and it kind of drove home to me how these squash really don't resemble zucchini that much. Even the monster zucchini are still narrow at the top and widen going down, while these things immediately budge out like other types of squash.

Their outside shell is much harder than anything I've ever seen zucchini-wise. It's a shell, not just skin and I've been cutting them and then treating them like I would a melon.

Tasting the insides raw tastes a like very mild zucchini though. (Unfortunately, I'm not really all that up to speed on what other squashes taste like raw.) Oh, I haven't managed to find them immature: it seems like it takes about two days for these things to go from flower to oversized monster. (I've only gotten three of them, two of them went from flower to 12 inch long monster while I was gone for five days, and the other I just found as a 12 inch long monster buried under all the leaves yesterday.)

They actually taste good when cooked: I've made "zucchini" pancakes out of them, and last night I sliced them into strips and cooked them with some oil and spices.

I have a picture but I didn't upload it last night. I'll do that tonight.

[cschick]

Mainly what I'm wondering is whether these things should remain on the plant a little longer to "ripen up" or something. If they're squash instead of zucchini--I've never grown any of the true squashes before. They have been quite unwilling to come off their plants.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by Owen'nZoe

. It actually sounds kind of similar to the Lebanese zucchini ("kousa") I grow. It is very pale green, and a bit drier than the zucchini we see in the grocery store.

After googling up some images, I'm pretty sure that these are of the "white bush Lebanese" variety.

Have no idea how the seeds for them ended up in a generic seed package of green zucchini sold by Target, but I have to give them two thumbs up.

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by cschick

After googling up some images, I'm pretty sure that these are of the "white bush Lebanese" variety.

Have no idea how the seeds for them ended up in a generic seed package of green zucchini sold by Target, but I have to give them two thumbs up.

They make excellent stuffed squash, BTW.