A Green Thumb

If my grandmother is known for her flowers, I am known for my vegetable garden. When I was ten I have this natural curiosity for growing things and living in a tropical country means, any seed thrown in the backyard, will most likely grow into something edible.

Of the many things I have enjoyed planting is kalabasa or squash. The plant is simultaneously or synchronously monoecious since it grows both male and female flowers and I remembered waking up early in the morning looking for female flowers, playing the pollinator, and as how my father puts, you have to put the tiny flower penis into the little flower vagina! I used to complain how there could be more male flowers than females - it turns out that the plant is subandroecious, meaning there are more male flowers than females, so often the male flowers becomes part of our vegetable dish.

I took this photo from my friend's mother's backyard. I have never planted an oblong-shaped squash before but I remembered the biggest one I have grown is approximately 35 cm. in diameter.