Squash Turks Turban

The most theatrical thing in the vegetable garden, and accurately named. Turk's Turban produces turban-shaped fruits with a buttoned crown pushing out of the top, striped and blotched in scarlet, cream, deep green and burnt umber. No two are alike.

It has been grown since at least the 1820s and has been a fixture of harvest festivals and autumn tables ever since. Calling it ornamental slightly undersells it — the orange flesh inside is perfectly good eating, sweet and nutty, somewhere between a Hubbard and a buttercup.

The sensible approach is to use it twice. Display the fruits through October and November while the colour is at its best, then cook them in December when their decorative work is done. Halve it through the equator rather than top to bottom; the turban makes the first cut awkward otherwise.