Green Winter Squash... What to Do?

Winter squash can keep for a year or more if it is properly hardened. Usually that happens on the vine in the field, where it's skin gets hard, like a pumpkin, instead of soft, like a summer squash. Ours was late because it was outcompeted in our three sisters garden by the too-densely planted corn, so it didn't start setting fruit till the corn had died back.

It's supposed to freeze tonight, so we had to bring in the winter squash off the three sisters garden, even though it was not ready. 

Thankfully, it is possible to harden it off even though it is no longer on the vine. 

We selected the fruits that had fully matured but were still a bit green and washed and dried them, being careful with the still-tender skin and also noting any existing damage. We plan to use the rest of the fruit just like summer squash- for sauteeing and stews. This left us with a reasonable sized pile of butternut and a single spaghetti squash.

Once they were dried off, we set them by a sunny window so that they could get good light, greenest side up. We will turn them as they ripen until they have nice hard skins all around. Many folks recommend leaving a couple inches of stem on the fruit so they can be turned without handling the bodies of the squash, but frankly, if they are that soft, they should probably go in the frying pan.

Anyway, that's that. They'll go on racks in our root cellar and we'll keep an eye on the ones that have a little damage on the flesh as we use them first, but this should certainly keep us in butternut until next fall.