Yellow summer squash (one of several cultivated Cucurbita pepo) is a type of yellow-coloured summer squash. It is also known as straightneck squash to distinguish it from its close relative, the yellow crookneck squash. It has mildly sweet and watery flesh, and thin tender skins that can be left on the fruit for many types of recipes. It was almost certainly domesticated in the eastern United States, although other variants of the same species (zucchini, pumpkin) were domesticated in Mesoamerica. The squash grows on vined plants reaching 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) to 90 centimetres (3.0 ft) in height that thrive in mild weather. It is well known as an item in American cooking, and is often used in recipes interchangeably with zucchini in which it is fried, microwaved, steamed, boiled, or baked. A good yellow summer squash will be small and firm with tender skin free of blemishes and bruising. It is available all year long in some regions, but it is at its peak from early through late summer.
Famous quotes containing the words yellow, summer and/or squash:
“They are very proper forest houses, the stems of the trees collected together and piled up around a man to keep out wind and rain,—made of living green logs, hanging with moss and lichen, and with the curls and fringes of the yellow birch bark, and dripping with resin, fresh and moist, and redolent of swampy odors, with that sort of vigor and perennialness even about them that toadstools suggest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Why doesn’t the United States take over the monarchy and unite with England? England does have important assets. Naturally the longer you wait, the more they will dwindle. At least you could use it for a summer resort instead of Maine.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“I am filling the room
with the words from my pen.
Words leak out of it like a miscarriage.
I am zinging words out into the air
and they come back like squash balls.
Yet there is silence.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)