What kind of squash did we have?

[Jenise]

Driving the slow way home through the countryside on Sunday we passed a home that had a table with free vegetables on it. Most of the squashes were gourd-like at this point and I'm not a fan of gargantuan overgrown zucchini and its ilk, but one squash was a manageable size and it's flesh nicked easily under my fingernail. Pale greenish white in color, it was about 8" tall and pretty much ovoid in the way of a spaghetti squash, but smaller than those typically are and slightly narrower at the stem end.

Halved, stuffed and roasted, I thought, it should make a perfect dinner for two. Providing it was good to eat, that is--I've never seen a squash quite like this.

And oh was it GOOD! Maybe in part, in large part even, just because it was so fresh. But I've never had anything like it: it was sweet (fresh sweet, not sugar sweet), stringy like a spaghetti squash but in a more juvenile way and much much much creamier. We had to scrape it away from the thin flesh with our knives before scooping up the squash with a little bit of the sausage-celery stuffing with our forks. The seeds were not seeds like a pumpkin--a big loose wad--they were just the middle of the squash, all white and webby vs. the firmer walls of the squash, but easily removed with a spoon. I wonder if maybe this was a baby spaghetti squash, or even a gargantuan version of the summer squash called gray, white or Magda, variously.

I would kill for another but I don't even know what I had. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

The shape, size and thin skin all suggest to me a Delicata. There is some variation in exterior coloration of this variety but typically the skin is pale - whitish-tan background with green striations and/or green blobs.
Look for pics on line for comparison.
In my first encounter with these squashes - Delicata and Sweet Dumpling [a small,squat acorn shape ] I was taken by the thin skin, nice textured, different tasting flesh and the fact that it didn't take as long to cook.
I lucked out this year because I nursed some squash vines that "volunteered' from the compost heap. As it
turns out the only seeds I dumped in the compost were from the Delicatas a friend gave me to try. They are vigorous vines, not heavily producing but I was able to harvest about 3 of the long ones and 4 of the Dumplings. I think they are a terrific new variety

[Jenise]

No, it wasn't Delicata. No stripes, no yellow, no bumps, and wider. Smooth skinned, like zucchini, and very uniform color.

But congratulations on your bonus plants--Delicata are indeed delicious. I wonder if they're some kind of hybrid or an heirloom type that someone resurrected? Until 5-6 years ago, they were unknown here on the left coast. Now they're pretty commonplace.

It is not unusual for different varieties of squash planted closely to marry and bear some strange baby. It happened in my garden plus I had a zucchini and a cucumber produce some awful fruit that was a combination of the two. An heirloom variety could be answer, as well. The next time you are out that way, stop by the house and ask the grower, that way you can ask him to save some for you next year...leave him your name and number and you've got a friend who might give you a few seeds of that lovely squash you enjoyed.