Question
I am still a novice to vegatable gardening, have had several victory gardens, as my children grew up, but always used plants.  

I have never tried using seeds, but I am more then curious, especially when I have enjoy a particular squash which I purchase from the market.  My question is this.  Is it possible to dry the seeds sucessfully from the market squash and save for the next planting season, especially something like yellow crookneck squash?  I live in So. California.

Thank you.  

Answer
Hi Marilyn,
Thanx for your question.  Most of the garden seed we use to grow squash and other veggies and fruits are hybrid and so saving the seeds can be fun but you'll never know what you're going to get if it is seed from hybrid plants.  There are lots of heirloom squash and veggies that will come true from seed.  I like to save seeds too,  but with veggies generally do not because of all of the inbreeding.  I like to know what I'm going to get in regard to the veggies and fruits.  My advice to you is if you want to save squash seeds find out about the heirloom varieties like Hubbard squash that will come true from seed.  You can do a search on Google.com (a great search engine!) for heirloom vegetables or heirloom squash.  Now, let me make one thing clear.  Heirloom veggies have good taste, much better than the veggies you can buy at the grocery store.  But, they can be more susceptible to diseases and they may not be as "pretty" as the boring, tasteless veggies they sell in the store.  Example:  ever notice the difference between a tomato you buy in the grocery and the tomato you grew in the back yard?  BIG DIFFERENCE, yes?  Sweeter, meatier, less seeds, no mealiness?  So, if you want to save seeds from veggies, begin by getting heirloom veggies and harvest the seeds which will, in general produce the same plants from which you harvested the seeds.  I hope this helps.
Tom