I recently bought half a butternut squash (mogango) from the local supermarket in Estremoz and was dismayed when I got home to see that it came all the way from South Africa! Why? When Portugal, and especially the Alentejo, produces pumpkins and squash in the millions. Annoyed with myself for not checking the label, I decided that having bought a vegetable with such a humungous footprint I would just have to make the most of it. Luckily for me, I follow a UK garden expert on Instagram who knows what he’s doing…
I have to confess that I am a very lazy gardener and I get disheartened when things don’t turn out as I was hoping. We use no chemicals in the garden at all and make our own compost – I guess this does make it harder to grow things, especially vegetables. We have adopted the no-burn (garden rubbish) method and we try to return all organic matter back into the soil. It’s hard work to chop everything down (we don’t have a wood chipper) but I am happy to say that it is paying off as our land is visibly higher than our neighbours’ already.
The appeal of ‘eating for free’
So, back to the squash. I scaped out the seeds, put them in compost in a pot and watered them occasionally. After a few days I had around 60 individual starter plants, far too many for me alone, so I transferred them into bigger pots and gave some out to a couple of friends, planting my own in the garden.
I soon had a thriving mogango patch (as my neighbour calls them), and rigged up a green cover to protect them from the heat of the Alentejo sun, watered them every couple of days, and half-heartedly pulled out a few weeds…now we have lots of flowers, a great supply of squash and bees happily buzzing around. Amazingly, the half squash from Pingo has multiplied into, so far around 20 full size mogangas.
Fried Mogango
The neighbour also has a good crop of veg too and is making all kinds of things with hers, including the pictured fried mogangas that she gave us to try. Probably not the healthiest sweet but delicious!
Other ‘free’ supermarket foods
Encouraged by our success with the South African, supermarket bought butternut squash, I am now moving on to other plants: avocados, physalis, microgreens etc.
Check out Simon’s Instagram profile for more ideas: Simon Akeroyd Garden Writer
