Winter Squash, Sonca Orange Butternut (Organic)
Cucurbita moschata. 100 days.
With orange skin occasionally marbled with green, and exceptionally dark orange flesh, this is one unique and beautiful butternut. Sonca Orange Butternut is by far sweeter and smoother than any other butternut we have ever eaten. Our experience is corroborated by Jo’s son, Cole, who thinks it is utterly delicious, and by a Polish message board, “Sonca fully mature is just the sweetest and most delicious.” (Thanks, Google Translate!) Also good raw. Mostly similar in size and shape to standard butternut varieties, but there is some variation in shape. A commercial Hungarian variety, Sonca is short for Soncatök, which translates to ‘ham pumpkin’ in Hungarian. It came to us via Lieven David, who has been growing it for nearly 20 years in Belgium.
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Sow indoors in 2-4” pots with good potting soil May through mid-June. Transplant into the garden 1-2 weeks after sprouting to 2-3’ centers and 6′ wide rows. May also be direct sown when soil is warm. Young plants are sensitive, we recommend row cover to protect from frost and insects.
Seed Saving
To save seed, scoop out seeds when you eat the fruit. Rinse off and dry. Isolate from other squash of the same species by at least ½ mile.
Maureen –
Where did you grow this variety? Oregon
This is a superior butternut in all ways. The look is fantastic and the taste is better. The seed cavity is quite small, often the size of a duck egg. One vine produced small 1-2 pound fruit. The majority produced healthy sized fruit fruit in the 4-6 pound range. The yield is high and even those I had to pick green ripened in storage and have held well. The Sonco are in the middle of the photo. These were grown in Eugene, Oregon
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Sylvia Ernst (verified owner) –
Where did you grow this variety? Oregon
Sonca needs a bit longer to ripen but here at the Oregon coast it still worked, they stayed in the garden as long as possible and most turned orange or at least partially orange. They continued to ripen indoors and ultimately all of them turned orange. The plants provide excellent yields, something like 3-4 large fruit per plant. The seed cavity is very small one squash is about 4 cups of squash meat after roasting, a few were more like 2 cups. Their flavor is outstanding and unique and the sugar content is incredible. A few of them were so sweet that I made pumpkin pie with them without adding any sugar and the pie was plenty sweet. They also seem to store quite well, right now it is January and the remaining ones are still fine, they look like they will easily keep for another month or two or beyond. An outstanding variety!
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