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by Garrett Pittenger
Fall harvest is the time squashes and pumpkins capture the imagination with their kaleidoscopic variety of shapes, sizes and colors – the very embodiment of genetic diversity. Think about including different varieties for next year’s garden while they seize your attention at the fall fairs and markets. Try cooking some of them in different ways and learn about their differences and special qualities. Then grow your own next season and learn to save seeds to preserve the varieties that work best for you.
Those of us who found Latin a challenge may be surprised that the dead language and its legacy to scientific nomenclature may simplify our understanding of the pumpkins and squashes and help us in growing them successfully. What is a pumpkin? What’s a squash? What’s the difference? This is one instance when it’s more productive to discard common English use. All the squashes and pumpkins belong to the genus Cucurbita (you may have seen the reference to cucurbits or "vine crops" in the plant family Cucurbitaceae and some of you may know of the definitive book on these plants, Whitakker’s The Cucurbits). The group includes squashes (summer and winter) and gourds, melons, cucumbers, watermelons, citrons and Oriental vine crops including such types as the bitter melon.
The commonly cultivated squashes belong to five species (and for practical purposes in our short season Canadian gardens, only three to four at most). These are: Cucurbita maxima (including Banana, Delicious, Buttercup, all the Hubbard squashes, Atlantic Giant, Hungarian Mammoth, Green Hokkaido and the hybrids such as Sweet Mama and the Japanese "Kabocha" squashes); C. moschata (including Butternut, Butterbush, Golden Cushaw, the Cheese pumpkins, Kentucky Field); C. pepo (including Connecticut Field and the related hybrid Halloween pumpkins, Small Sugar, Zucchini and Cocozelle types, Yellow Crookneck, Yellow Straightneck, Delicata, Spaghetti, Acorn, Scallop and the common ornamental gourds); C. mixta (including Green Striped Cushaw, Tennessee Sweet Potato); C. ficifolia (Chilacayote).
The different species can be fairly easily distinguished by their fruit stems. The pepo squashes have a stem that is five-angled in cross section, with the lines of each of the five angles sloping smoothly onto the fruit. The moschatas are similar, but with a well-developed bump or "cushion" swelling where the stem angle lines join the fruit. Take a look this fall at the striking difference between the Halloween pumpkin stems and the stems on the commonly available Butternut. The maximas have a stem with no angles, just irregularly rounded and corky textured. These are, for all practical purposes, the only species that you will generally encounter in the colder parts of Canada.
The mixtas are a peculiar intermediate between the amorphous corky stem of the maximas and, I suspect, ones that were grown by Aboriginal peoples mainly for their seeds. The ficifolia (fig-leaf) squash is a perennial in warm climates and looks surprisingly like a watermelon. I have never seen it in Canada. The Portuguese grow it to use its spaghetti-like white flesh for the preparation of a sort of candied peel for pastries. The vegetable spaghetti pepo squash makes an acceptable substitute in our climate.
If you like to save your own seeds, knowing the different species will help you to keep your seed stock pure. You can grow a variety from each species in your garden without fear of their crossing (provided your near neighbors don’t grow squashes!), BUT varieties that belong to one species will cross with each other and the result will be a mess for next year’s crop. You can grow variety without restriction if you hand pollinate, which is not so very difficult. The technique is fully described and illustrated in How to Save Your Own Vegetable Seeds, available from Seeds of Diversity Canada (see order form on previous page).
The maxima squashes tend to be the longest keepers. The large Hubbard varieties were a type much favored since the middle of the nineteenth century when, because of their drier and richer flesh, they displaced the common field pumpkin at the table. The more recently developed small Hubbards and Buttercup came into favor for their smaller size, suited to use in smaller households. A favorite of mine is the Japanese variety Green Hokkaido, now unfortunately dropped by Johnny’s Selected Seeds. I continue to grow this small, round, gray-green squash for its excellent dry flesh and good winter keeping ability. The old Indian squash Arikara is a favorite for its soup-making quality and hard shell. It can keep for up to a year and the plant revives after drought, holding onto its immature fruit while waiting for rain.
Ironically, the little pepo squashes such as Delicata and the Acorn types have come back into favor after being eclipsed a century ago by bigger squashes. These tend to be great for eating as soon as they are picked and are well-liked for their ease of preparation. Simply cut them in half or into rings and bake. The familiar little gourds are also pepo squashes. The mature Golden Crookneck is actually a gourd when dry but a tender vegetable in the young state. I think that most of our cultivated varieties are sweet mutations from wild ancestors that had bitter flesh, much the same way that an cucumber will occasionally be bitter. Long cultivation and selection by generations of Aboriginal farmers perfected most of the squashes into the forms we use today, often with little substantial alteration. The familiar "summer" squashes like the Zucchini are pepos, although any immature squash can be used in the same way as young Zucchinis. These and the marrows tend to be absolutely useless when too large, but their ability to delay seed development keeps them in table condition for a long time.
The well-known Butternut is a moschata, probably descended from the old Canada Crookneck that I have never been able to find except in illustrations. Oddly, the moschatas are usually a southern species, but these types are exceedingly well adapted to the north. Although they generally flower later than other squashes, they develop and mature quickly. I particularly like the variety ‘Butterbush’, which is just somewhat short vined and not really a "bush" squash. These are generally of very high quality and color and are very easily peeled and cut into chunks for steaming. They can also be baked and are superb for soups. The old-fashioned Cheese pumpkins are flattened, round moschatas with deep ribs, making them look like a cheese wrapped in a casing of tight strings. My great grandmother used them as a pie pumpkin in preference to all the others because of their superior flesh quality. Most canned pumpkin pie filling is actually moschata squash, most likely Butternut or the large hybrid Butternut that is suited to mechanical peeling.
The "Calabaza" of the islands and Cuba is a moschata. I know its Bahamian variant as a high quality squash that, unfortunately, will not mature here. The northern squashes are not adapted through frost resistance but rather in their ability to set flowers and fruit during our long summer days and to mature before frost. These southern varieties appear to need the short days of fall to trigger their flowering – just in time for our frost! Those that know their squash botany can use the northern moschatas rather than pay the higher prices for a piece of Jamaican pumpkin from the supermarket.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
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