When Sarah Tucker-Boehm received a spaghetti squash for her birthday five years ago she never imagined it would become another commercial crop for the family’s business.
Key points:
- Spaghetti squash resembles a butternut pumpkin on the outside, but its flesh looks like angel hair pasta when scooped out
- It was popular in the ’70s as a low-carb alternative to pasta
- The winter vegetable has been selling well in capital cities of the eastern states
The Riverland farmer said she loved the quirky winter vegetable so much that the following year she planted a personal crop from its seeds.
“Then I introduced it to my in-laws, and they loved it as well, so we decided to do some commercial crops,” Ms Tucker-Boehm said.
While it resembles a butternut pumpkin, grown on a stem with a hard hull and seeds inside, she said its flesh inside was quite surprising.
Sarah Tucker-Boehm says most of her spaghetti squash has been snapped up by consumers in Melbourne.(ABC Rural: Eliza Berlage)
“It is really fibrous and when you cook it, you fork through it and it looks exactly like angel hair pasta,” Ms Tucker-Boehm said.
“It doesn’t have an overpowering flavour — it probably tastes a little like a zucchini I guess, or like squash.
“Squash itself doesn’t have a really strong taste, which is great because you can use it instead of pasta if you are wanting to cut out carbs or mix it up.”
Growing demand
When Ms Tucker-Boehm’s two rows of plantings of spaghetti squash became too big for personal use, the family looked for a market to sell it to.
The family business, Parkes Lane Produce in Waikerie, has found interest in their crop from fresh produce markets in Melbourne.
“Then this year, the market that we found last year asked, ‘are you planting again?’ because they really enjoyed our squash,” Ms Tucker-Boehm said.
“So here we are now planting more squash amongst the avos.”
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Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-03-07/spaghetti-squash-resurgence/100881030