What is squash

What is squash? I believe that few friends have heard of this vegetable, so let me introduce it to you.

Squash

Cucurbitaceae, pumpkin genus. Annual vine herb. Stems are several meters long, with roots at the nodes, strong, ridged, covered with short hard hairs, and tendrils with 3 to 4 forks. Single leaves are alternate, heart-shaped or broadly ovate, 5 shallowly lobed with 5 angles, slightly soft, 15 to 30 cm long, densely covered with hairs on both sides, often with white spots along the edges and on the leaf surface, and irregular serrations on the edges. Flowers are solitary, monoecious and dioecious. Male flowers have short receptacles. Calyx lobes are linear, and the top is expanded into a leaf shape. Corolla is bell-shaped, yellow, 5-lobed, and the lobes are spread out and wrinkled. There are 3 stamens. Pumpkin, also known as squash, is a herbaceous plant of the Cucurbitaceae family, which has the effects of tonifying the middle and replenishing qi, moistening the lungs and resolving phlegm.

The squash is also called pumpkin and golden gourd. Its flesh is rich in polysaccharides, vitamins, amino acids and minerals. The vitamins, pectin and other substances contained in the polysaccharides have a good effect on improving the hyperlipidemia of modern people's diet, lowering blood sugar, cholesterol and laxative. The vitamins are rich in vitamin E and carotene. Among them, vitamin E has antioxidant and anti-aging effects. Carotene can be converted into carotenoids in the human body, which can help children maintain healthy vision and development; and it also has a certain effect on preventing tumors. The minerals are high in calcium and potassium; low in sodium. Especially for the middle-aged and elderly and hypertensive patients, it has a good effect on osteoporosis and hypertension.

Wax gourd is sweet and warm in nature, and has the effects of strengthening the spleen, digesting food, and cleansing the stomach.

In addition to the above-mentioned substances, wax gourd can not only be fried or cooked, but also processed into a variety of processed products: such as wax gourd puree, wax gourd jerky, sauce, pickled wax gourd, wax gourd soy sauce and dehydrated wax gourd slices.

Over the past few decades, I have traveled to many places, but have never seen such good squash.

What is squash

"Wa" means short in Chinese. The diameter of most melons, such as cucumber, horned melon, loofah, winter melon, etc., is smaller than the height, and they are slender. Only the "Wa" melon has a diameter larger than the height, and when it is placed flat on the ground, it looks very stable, short and thick, so it is called "Wa" melon. As for the name "Wo" melon, it may come from the fact that this melon has several melons on one vine, like a bird's nest, forming a nest.

In the past, pumpkins were only food for the poor, and could not be served at banquets or in elegant places. Now, pumpkins have become very good health food. They have been included in the scope of the "green food" logo products of the Ministry of Agriculture. Pumpkin powder is rich in nutrition and is very popular in the international market. The deep processing of pumpkins and the development and application of pumpkin powder have made pumpkin products an industry.

It is rich in nutrition and contains a large number of trace elements needed by the human body. The fruit of squash contains starch, fat, reducing acid, citrulline, arginine, asparagine, cucurbitacin, adenine, carotene, pentosan, pectin, soluble fiber, various vitamins, pectin, cyclopropyl amino acids, mannitol and trace elements (especially potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, chromium, zinc) and other nutrients, as well as minerals such as phosphorus and titanium. Squash tastes sweet and palatable, is sweet and warm in nature, can replenish qi, promote the release of insulin in the human body, effectively prevent and treat diabetes and hypertension, increase the regeneration capacity of liver and kidney cells in the human body, and delay aging.

Aihui has some yellow sandy land near the Heilongjiang River, which is very suitable for growing squash. Squash is a specialty here. It is large and can generally grow to 5 to 8 kilograms. In some places, a plastic bag can hold several squashes, but Aihui's squash can only fit a few in a sack.

The characteristics of Aihui squash are: first, it is soft; second, it is old; third, it has thick flesh and few seeds. If you buy squash locally, you can pinch it with your fingernails. If you can't pinch it or it doesn't leave a mark, it is the best quality. The newly ripe squash has little water and is choking when steamed. It will be better after a few days of sweetening. It takes a lot of effort to chop the old squash with a knife.

The color of the squash is mostly gray, but also red. The flesh is all orange-red. Aihui squash can be eaten in many ways. Common ways for ordinary people to eat it are to make soup and steam it. The squash has a transparent plastic-like skin on the outside. It is easy to peel after steaming, but you can eat it without peeling. Steamed squash is sweet and soft. Beijingers say that old squash tastes like chestnuts, which may be a bit exaggerated, but it is a very good food. In recent years, a special stew in Northeast China has become popular. It is stewed with squash, beans, green corn, and ribs. It is very popular. Some restaurants also make pumpkin cakes for sale. Squash is made into porridge with various rices and is a common food for farmers. In autumn, squash is put on the market in large quantities. It cannot be stored for too long, so people dry it. Dried squash has a high sugar content. It not only has a long shelf life, but also tastes sweeter. It can also be made into soup, porridge, and steamed. It has a taste like dried persimmon. The variety of squash eating methods is rare among other foods. It can be used as a staple food, a side dish, or paired with various staple and side dishes. The orange-red color of the squash is purely natural and can be used to color various foods to meet the Chinese people's requirements for color, aroma and taste of food.

The squash seeds are very good food and are said to be used as medicine. Their scientific name is white melon seeds. In the past, when the Japanese occupied the Northeast, the Japanese surrendered and returned home. They missed the squash from Aihui, Heilongjiang, and specifically asked for Aihui's squash seeds. In the 1950s and 1960s, the people were reluctant to eat them, so they handed them over to the state to export to Japan for foreign exchange. Aihui's white melon seeds are a famous high-end local specialty in the international market. After the squash is cut open, the pulp is taken out, and the seeds are squeezed out and dried. Before the dried melon seeds are sold, a layer of dry film on the outside of the seeds falls off with a pinch of the hand. Blow off the dry film, leaving white, plump seeds, spotlessly clean, and a favorite product.

The squash is a climbing plant that can produce squash even if it climbs up to the wall of a farmer's house. The people of Aihui love to eat squash and also grow squash, which has a high yield. They have also created a special food, the squash vine. Each squash vine grows a leaf and produces a fork, which produces a squash. In addition to the squash on the main vine, the other forks should be removed, which is called pinching the tips. The tender part of the removed squash vine is peeled off a thin layer of skin, and it becomes a very delicious vegetable that can be mixed or fried, and can be eaten with meat or vegetables. It is not only nutritious, but also tastes good. I suggest that friends must try it if they have the chance. This is really a local food that you will never forget if you don't try it.

Nutrition of squash

Some people say that the squash is a treasure from head to toe, and I agree with that statement. For example, the squash leaves are large, heart-shaped, and somewhat like lotus leaves. Another specialty of the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River, the wild persimmon fruit, is sold on the street in squash leaves as packaging. This is truly green food plus green packaging.

There are both male and female flowers on the squash vine. The male flowers have one cylindrical stigma containing male pollen, and the female flowers have four or five cylindrical stigmas. Artificial pollination is locally called "flower interpolation". The method is as follows: pick the male flowers, remove the petals, turn the receptacle downward, and insert the stamens containing male pollen between several female stigmas so that the male pollen fully contacts the female stamens.

The squash flowers are also good food, they are delicious when cooked, and the colors are even better. There is also a small can of molasses in the male flower receptacle, which is probably a prize for the bees. Since I am the one who artificially pollinates them, I will drink it up without hesitation. When I was about ten years old, I did these tasks of pinching the tips and pressing the vines in the private plot every morning, and tasted the sweetness of the squash in advance. At that time, the beekeeping industry was not yet developed, and the squash could not be kept without artificial pollination.

Nowadays, we don’t need to recall the bitter past and think of the sweet present. During the three difficult years, squash was our life-saving food. At that time, in addition to growing squash ourselves, we also had to buy a ton of squash from outside every autumn to solve the problem of food shortage. My current good health may be related to the large amount of squash I ate at that time, but my skin turned yellow from eating squash. Selling squash seeds, a byproduct, to the government can help cover part of the cost of purchasing squash.