Know your vegetables with these pictures of squash. Let’s take a look at the different types of squash you can grow in the home garden.

 

Pictures of Squash

Perhaps you’ve sat down at a restaurant to enjoy a meal. The waiter brings your plate. There, next to your steak and potatoes, sits an unknown vegetable.

“What is it?”

“Squash.”

Yes, but what kind of squash? With dozens of types of squash, it can be hard to identify the exact type of squash you’re enjoying without seeing pictures of squash.

Slideshow – Pictures of Squash

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Types of Squash

Squash can be divided into two main categories:

• Summer squash – grows during the heat of the summer and includes green and yellow squash, pattypan, and zucchini
• Winter squash – grows into the fall and forms the hearty dishes of autumn. Includes butternut, acorn, spaghetti squash and many others.

Cooking Summer Squash

The majority of summer squash can be cooked in several ways:

• Peeled, sliced, and sautéed in butter with onions
• Peeled, sliced, boiled or microwaved and served with tomato sauce
• Baked, as with zucchini, into muffins, breads and other dishes

Zucchini is perhaps the best-known of the summer squash. It’s prolific growing habit has led to many jokes about people dropping off bags of zucchini on neighbors’ porches anonymously in the heat of summer. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s amazing how one tiny zucchini seed can lead to an abundance of healthy vegetables.

Speaking of health, all summer squash are low in calories and high in fiber.  It is considered a good source of:

• Protein
• Vitamin A
• Thiamime
• Niacin
• Phosphorus
•  Copper
• Dietary Fiber
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin K
• Riboflavin
• Vitamin B6
• Folate
• Magnesium
• Potassium
• Manganese

Cooking Winter Squash

Winter squash have a harder shell and can be difficult to cook. The stem ends are generally cut off, the squash is cut in half, and the interior seeds scooped out and discarded. Squash can then be baked in a moderate 350 degree oven in an oven-safe dish with water in the bottom to prevent it from scorching.

Growing Squash

Squash can be easy to grow. Note that I say – can. I’ve had problems with it, namely these things called squash bugs. I took this picture today on my butternut squash vines. I had to harvest the butternut, a winter squash, a little early because the bugs have just killed the vines.