Silver Seed

Last summer the winter squashes and pumpkins were located in a place where watering them was not a feasible option. Many years this is not a problem since the rainfall is adequate for the hills to store up enough water to last to the next rain. But not so this year. At the critical time when most of them were setting blossoms, it was hot and dry and worst of all the night temperatures did not drop below 75 degrees for many nights in a row. The blossoms of most of the pumpkins and squashes expired and fell off the vines under such unrelenting heat and dryness.

It was a very bad crop of a very important vegetable. Alas, most people only come into contact with members of the Cucurbita genus as Jack-o-lanterns or fall decorations. But the the self-sufficient hardscrabble farmstead they are an important group of plants. Here I should say that the term 'pumpkin' does not identify a species of plant or a particular vegetable. A pumpkin is a squash that is generally roundish, ribbed, and orange (but not always). But what we call pumpkins are several different species of Cucurbita. The very large prize winning pumpkins (such as Atlantic Giant and Big Max) are Cucurbita Maxima. The most typical Jack-o-lantern pumpkin is the Connecticut Field Pumpkin which is C. Pepo. And many of those small dark orange sugar pumpkins used for pies are C. Moschata.

If that were not enough, the C. Pepo species, those Halloween pumpkins, also includes zucchini, yellow crookneck, and patty pan summer squashes. Acorn squashes are also C. Pepo. Many of the small sweet pie pumpkins are C. Pepo but some are C. Moschata and are the same species as butternut squash. And those tiny squashes no bigger than your fist, the 'buttercup' squashes, are C. Maxima just like the monster 500 lb. giant pumpkins. Hubbard squash are also C. Maxima.

There are many other species of edible squash such as C. Mixta and C. Melopepo. Ornamental gourds are of the genus Cucurbita as are the great bewildering number of species of wild gourds from which they were all derived.

One very different but very useful species is the C. Argyrosperma, a very long time heirloom squash in the Appalachians, the Cushaw. Cushaws are large gourd shaped squash with very fine grained flesh ideal for pies. They are long maturing and slow growing. This year, as they most often do in bad years, they soldiered on produced a good crop of fruits in spite of the bad conditions. The vine pictured above was drying up in the heat, but set and matured the green striped squash none the less.

An excellent producer and arguably the best tasting of the squashes, the Cushaw has one serious drawback: They don't keep very long. All winter squash keep best in warm dry conditions. Some of the Queensland Blue squash of the previous years have kept 18 months and were still in good condition. Alas, one is lucky to get the Cushaw to keep two months from their harvest in late October.

Here is the last Cushaw of the season cut open to be cooked for Christmas dessert.

This one was about 22" long and weighed about 12 lbs. Of course such a tenacious specimen of a vegetable deserves to have its genes preserved and passed along and I kept all the largest seeds so that they can grow in many gardens this coming season.

You can perhaps see where this squash gets is specie name Argyrosperma which is Greek for Silver Seed.