Mississippi squash

HISTORY OF SQUASH

Summer squash varieties (C. pepo) are properly harvested for food while tender and immature, before either the seeds or the rinds have become firm or tough. The fruits are cooked with no prior preparation except washing and perhaps cutting into pieces of convenient size. In English-speaking countries other than the United States, they are generally called “vegetable marrows.”

This kind is apparently the one most frequently described as “squash” by European visitors to our Atlantic coast during the early to late 17th century. Early in the preceding century, however, the European observers had referred to this type as a kind of gourd because of its superficial resemblance to Old World gourds.

0ur word “squash” comes from the Massachuset Indian word askutasquash, meaning “eaten raw or uncooked.” Although the Indians may have eaten some forms of squash without cooking, today we like our squashes cooked. A vining variety introduced as new in America in 1881 happened to be exactly like one described in Germany in 1552 and recognized as of American origin. Fruits like our present White Bush Scallop or Cymling were accurately illustrated by the French botanist Matthias Lobel in 1591, and the bush form of squash plant was known in Europe in the 17th century, if not earlier. The White Bush Scallop was called Symnel in 1648, but Thomas Jefferson, in 1803, wrote it “Cymling,” the commonest name for it in our South today. Our Summer Crookneck of today, named as a variety in seed catalogues as early as 1828, appears to be the same as a squash described by Champlain in 1605.

Thus it seems that the culture and use of summer squashes has been well known in Europe from the beginnings of colonial times here. Both European and American gardeners still grow many varieties that are substantially the same as those grown by pre-Columbian Indians.

The summer squashes have long been popular in Italy, as indicated by the names and varieties developed there-Cocozelle and Zucchini, for example-which have lately become popular in America. (National Geographic: 1949)

(Reference: Texas A & M University: Vegetable Travelers)

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