OK fellow squash growers. You have never in your life tried anything until you pick the young tender squash flowers and sautee them in butter, gently. Holy crow, you are in for a taste that will twizzle your whiskers (if you have them, lol).
I grow spaghetti, butternut squash and pumpkins and lots of them. I have no fear of taking too many blossoms to fry in the pan. I find that the butternut squash blossoms have by far the most wonderful of the blossom flavour. Over past years I have planted many different cultivars of squash and that is why I plant so many butternut squash, so I can be a flower eater.
I pick the blossoms before they are fully open, sometimes only just beginning to open. By the time I am ready to fry them (usually by suppertime), the blossoms are open. Eeeh gads!!!!! Just wait until you try this tasty little culinary treat.
It does not hurt the squash plants to take a few blossoms or a good many blossoms. Just don't take all of them (come on now, don't be greedy :evil:). Squash is like many other vegies and flowers, the more you pick the more they grow.
Enjoy your squash blossoms, and remember you can pretend that you are the most famous gourmet cook in the world. Squash blossoms fetch a huge price in the market around our Lower Mainland. Have a wonderful day, beautiful life, and eat your vegies :) Cindi