Butternut Pollination

I have spent many mornings this past week making a quick stop into the Kitchen Garden before I headed to work. My two "Butternut" winter squash plants have had a newly opened female blossom atop an immature squash many times this week. While I could cross my fingers and hope that a pollinator carries pollen from a male blossom to the female blossom, I have instead been hand pollinating these blooms each morning. If today's beauty, pictured above, sets, then I think I will have 4 "Butternut" squash growing though today. The vines are really doing well this year, as compared to my "Crown Pumpkin" which has only set one fruit up to this point.