Kitchen Garden Forum

We recently bought a number of Sweet Dumplings from a farm shop and although the skins are nice and firm, the interior flesh is unexpectedly limp. We've stored them (for 2 weeks) in a dry garage and it's unusual for this to happen so early in the season. Can anybody suggest what is causing this as we're wondering whether our Crown Princes will also be similarly affected. Don't grow our own squash any more because of shortage of space so wonder if anybody else who has grown them has had this problem this season. |'m not convinced that it's our storage conditions that might be causing this.

Hi Primrose

You deserve a reply.

I wonder if the problem isn't that they were picked before fully ripe/cured.

I guess that's a possibility Alan as they were bought from the huge display that the farm shop set up every October. People come quite a distance to see them so maybe they were all picked a little early for that purpose. We haven't cut open a Crown Prince yet so if that is the same, your suggestion could well be right.