Simple hack for growing your own crop of butternut squash with supermarket bought food

Butternut squash is delicious roasted, in a risotto as part of a chilli of whizzed up into a soup - and now a expert has shared a tip that will ensure you will have a near limitless supply.

Simon Akeroyd, the author of 30 gardening books, took to where he frequently shares top tips with his followers, to explain how you can turn one supermarket squash into hundreds. The vegetables, a filling autumn favourite, are often on sale at all big name for between one and two pounds. They are healthy and delicious and can be used in a wide variety of dishes, from curries to pastas to Moroccan tagines.

Simon demonstrated in a recent video how canny gardeners can ensure an on-going supply of this delicious veg for the price of just one supermarket butternut squash. In the video, Simon advises viewers: “How to grow a butternut squash from the Supermarket! It’s so easy! “It’s the season for fresh, local butternut squashes to appear in our shops,” he writes. “Cut your butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Dry them on kitchen paper for a few days. Then store them in envelopes in a drawer over winter."

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“Sow the seeds in spring in pots and keep on a sunny windowsill. Plant outside in the soil once the risk of frosts is over.” The video shows Simon scooping out the seeds before setting them aside to dry, it then cuts to them being planted into individual small pots and put on a windowsill.

Finally a bumper crop of squash is shown, but the tasty veg growing on vines spread out across the ground. In a bonus tip, Simon advises viewers: “place a stone under ripening ones to stop them rotting on the soil”. The clip shows a piece of slate which has been used for the squash to rest on. The video, posted on September 26 has over 5000 likes and a large number of comments from gardening fans. Simon has recently taken to Instagram to with his followers.