Gardening: Center of attention

November/December 2023 California Bountiful magazine

A hollowed-out winter squash with some water, floating candles and flowers can make a lovely, fun centerpiece for a holiday table. Photo: © 2023 Fred Greaves

Floating candle centerpiece starts with a winter squash

Story by Pat Rubin
Photos by Fred Greaves

If I had to limit my vegetable garden to one crop, I’d choose pumpkins and other winter squashes. I love their exotic names—Long Island cheese pumpkin, butternut Rugosa Violina Gioia, Marina di Chioggia, blue Hokkaido. I love the colors—orange red, pale green, light blue and more. I love the shapes and textures—mottled, warty, deeply furrowed, long and slender, flat.

These beauties are at their height of harvest and availability in gardens and at farmers markets early fall into late winter. And because this is the time of year when I especially want to bring the outside inside, naturally these gorgeous gems are front and center.

I’ve stacked them from big to small outside the front door, used them as table centerpieces and enjoyed them for meals, of course. My favorite winter project with some of the beautifully colored, oddly shaped ones is to use them as vases, containers or harvest baskets.

To make a unique centerpiece, you’ll need a pumpkin or other winter squash, water, small flowers, floating candles, a lighter and pruners or scissors. Photo: © 2023 Fred Greaves

It’s a quick and easy project: Cut off the top of the squash and scoop out the loose seeds and pulp until the insides are clean and smooth. Add water and an assortment of flowers from the garden, such as camellias or stray roses, and a few floating candles. This will be a perfect centerpiece and conversation starter for the dining room table when company comes. I also make a few for low tables on the deck for those mild evenings when you can sit outside.

A few hints: Prepare the squash the morning or evening before so it’s as fresh as possible. Choose one that is wide and sort of flat. It doesn’t need to be deep for this project, and something narrow like a tall pumpkin won’t let you put many candles or flowers inside. Keeping it low lets guests see inside. Trim the flower stems as close to the base of the flower as possible so it floats facing up.

It will last for several days, especially if you change the water and re-scrape the sides every couple of days. But don’t let it wait too long. Once you’re done enjoying it as the star on the table, use it in your next meal. After all, what’s winter without squash soup or baked winter squash topped with a dab of butter or crème fraîche?

Pat Rubin