Squash Baby’s empty cage |
This morning we woke to find that Squash Baby had been taken during the night.
Erik just returned from searching the neighborhood, hoping to find traces, remanants or, heaven help us, the perp him or herself. Needless to say, he is cursing. He’d planned on harvesting Squash Baby today, so it is particularly heartbreaking. It had stopped adding inches (I believe it held at 36″), and had started taking on golden tones.
I only hope that the people who took it plan on eating it. If it’s feeding a family (which it could do for several days), that’s fine. If some kids took it and smashed in an alley…well, that’s best not pondered. Forensic examination of the stem stump, however, reveals that the perp did not use a knife, but rather pried the squash* free. This speaks ominously to an impulse theft.
Once I saw a Buddhist monk on TV. He held up a pretty glass and said, “This glass is already broken.” My attitude toward Squash Baby has always been, “This squash is already stolen.” But poor Erik was much attached to the squash, and his head was filled with images of squash galettes and squash gnocchi and squash soup. He wanted to have a squash butchering party. Now he’s hunched over his breakfast cereal, disconsolate, and muttering about never planting anything in the parkway again.
He harvested Squash Sibling this morning, though it could have grown some more, I believe. We’re hoping it’s ripe enough for good eating. It’s no inconsiderable squash, despite being the runt of the litter. It measures 22 inches.
Next year we will plant Lunga di Napoli again, far from the street.
* N.B. Squash Baby was technically a pumpkin, as noted in a previous post.