Heirloom Winter Squash
Candy Roaster Squash is a smaller strain of winter squash from northern Georgia that has earned devoted fans across the Southeast for its exceptional sweetness and baking qualities. The striking pink, banana-shaped fruits feature a distinctive blue tip and typically weigh around 10 pounds, making them manageable for home gardeners and attractive enough to display. Reaching maturity in 95 days, this heirloom produces smooth, orange flesh that's beloved for pies and roasting, though it remains surprisingly hard to find outside seed-saving circles.
Full Sun
Moderate
3-11
?in H x ?in W
Annual
High
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Pink banana-shaped fruits with a blue tip announce this squash's unusual beauty from across the garden. The smooth orange flesh inside delivers the kind of sweetness that made Candy Roaster famous in Appalachian kitchens, baking into silky pie filling or caramelizing gorgeously when roasted. At around 10 pounds per fruit, each plant produces substantial harvests without overwhelming you with oversized giants.
Candy Roaster is primarily used in the kitchen for baking and cooking. The smooth, sweet flesh makes exceptional pie filling, delivering a naturally sugary base that requires less added sweetener than many squash varieties. It also excels when halved and roasted, where the flesh caramelizes beautifully, or fried for a different textural preparation. The flesh's delicate texture and sweetness mean it performs well wherever you want squash as a main component rather than a supporting ingredient.
Sow seeds directly in the garden once soil has warmed to at least 70 degrees Fahrenheit, after all danger of frost has passed. Plant seeds 1/2 to 1 inch deep, spacing them appropriately in rows or hills. Seeds typically sprout within 5 to 10 days under warm conditions.
Candy Roaster reaches full maturity in 95 days from planting. Harvest fruits when the skin has fully hardened and turned its characteristic pink color with a blue tip; the rind should resist puncturing with a fingernail. Cut the fruit from the vine using a sharp knife or pruner, leaving a few inches of stem attached to extend storage life. Harvest before the first frost, as this variety is not frost hardy.
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“Candy Roaster comes from northern Georgia, where it became a treasured heirloom among Southeast gardeners and home cooks. This smaller strain of the larger Candy Roaster family developed and was preserved within regional farming and gardening communities, earning its reputation through generations of growers who saved seeds and shared plants with neighbors. Its status as a hard-to-find variety today reflects how many heirlooms exist primarily within tight circles of dedicated seed savers rather than mainstream commercial agriculture.”