Squash Crown Prince F1

The reference winter squash, and the one others are measured against. Silvery blue-grey skin over dense deep-orange flesh, fruits of three or four kilos, and an RHS Award of Garden Merit. Grow it once and it tends to become permanent.

The flavour justifies the long season. Dry, sweet and deeply nutty, far more complex than a butternut, and it caramelises rather than steams when roasted. Like the best storing squashes it improves in the cellar — a fruit eaten in January is usually better than the same one in September.

Curing is the step most people skip and the one that matters most. Ten to fourteen days somewhere genuinely warm after harvest hardens the skin and seals the neck, and it is the difference between a squash that keeps three months and one that keeps eight.