Delicata squash

We’ve been eating a lot of squash these days, in every shape, form and color. Blue Hubbard, Golden Acorn, dark green Kabocha, and this season’s runaway hit with the farm-to-table crowd, Delicata. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a resounding success with the kids. Kinda gooey, and let’s be honest, sometimes it’s more fun to talk about robots than vegetables.

 ME: Guys, I mentioned that there’s something special about this kind of squash.

SAM: It’s a gourd.

ME: No, it’s not a gourd.

SAM: You said that it was a gourd.

ME: It’s not a gourd. And we’re going to have to look up the difference between a squash and a gourd. But, there’s something special about this squash. First of all, do you know the name?

SAM: Mmm mmm…

EMMA: Can you clean the Kleenex box?

ME: Yeah, I’ll wipe it down.

SAM: Micro Pods?

ME: It’s not called Micro Pods.

SAM: Micro Bots!

ME: Nope. It’s called Delicata.

SAM: Delicata? I said that because I saw it in Big Hero.

ME: This kind of squash?

SAM: No. No. Um…there’s this thing called a…

ME: A squash?

SAM: …the… um… Micro Bots.

ME: Yeah.

SAM: They’re like little tiny robots…

ME: That’s really cool.

SAM: And the Big Hero… he’s like “I have found out where your tiny robot wants to go!”

ME: Cool!

EMMA: I HATE THIS SQUASH!

SAM: He wanted to go to a place for bad guys.

ME: Sam, can we talk about the squash for a second?

EMMA: [singing] I love you… you love me…

ME: So, this is called Delicata, and the interesting thing about it is that you can actually eat the skin. Have you ever eaten the skin on a squash before?

EMMA: No, I didn’t!

SAM: I have! I have.

ME: Have you?! What kind of squash was that where you ate the skin?

SAM: Yellow… yellow?

EMMA: [singing] I love you… you love me.

LAUREN: Patty Pan.

ME: You’re right. You’re right. Patty Pan squash. You did eat the skin because that was Summer squash… Nice job guys!

ME: OK, so who’s going to try it first?

EMMA: NOT ME!

LAUREN: Not me.

ME: I bet Sam is going to try it first, because he’s a squash lover.

SAM: I don’t care, I’ll eat it.

(tries it)

SAM: I don’t like it.

ME: But you know what? Thanks for trying. How come you didn’t like it?

SAM: The inside is like kind of gooey.

ME: Yeah?

SAM: Why do they put in gooey stuff?

LAUREN: Sam, people don’t just make the squash. They plant the squash and then it comes out that way.

ME: OK, thanks for that Lauren. So you’re not going to try it?

LAUREN: I’m not.