clause first published asThe Mystery of the Calabacita Squashon Blogcritics . Story by giantveggiegardener .
As a gardener and a Captain Cook , I ’ve been searching for a particular squash seed - the Mexican Calabacita . It was the original squash used to make the famed ‘ Calabacitas ’ dishful of squash , edible corn , onion and green chili here in New Mexico . Most of us now apply zucchini to make this savory dish because of it ’s availability , but here at the Santa Fe Farmers Market , you may buy the Calabacita squelch in early summer and then by mid summertime , they are expire . They are little green squashes with gentle cutis and teeny weenie seeds - too small to harvest . I researched it and retrieve that the squash in the beginning came from Mexico but not a lot of selective information is out there on it . No seed catalogs have it . None of my horticulture friends have any seeds . I could n’t find it anywhere .
Then two years ago while on vegetable horticulture assembly here in Santa Fe , I come across another gardener and during the trend of our conversation after the assembly , the cryptic Calabacitas squash came up . I told her of my difficulty finding the seeds . She state me she had gotten some Calabacita seeds from another farmer whose category had been here for generations . She offered me a few of the come . at long last I would get some seeds ! So we emailed each other and I charge her an gasbag to send me some but they never come . I went by the Farmers Market where she sell produce but we save miss each other . Another season passed and still no seeds .
This class , on the last twenty-four hours of my time of year as ‘ The Tomato Lady ’ at the Farmers Market where I sell heirloom tomatoes , I went by her booth and cite maybe I could get some of those seeds for this approaching season . She said , ” Why not grease one’s palms one of the squash now ? ” When she bespeak them out , I said , “ That ’s one of them ? It does n’t reckon anything like the ones before in the time of year ” and she remark , “ Yes that ’s one of them . They are in reality a type of wintertime SQUASH . We just nibble them when they are really new and immature and have no seeds ” . That explains it ! Why I could never get any seed from them . That is why we do n’t see them subsequently on in summer - if you allow it keep grow ; it will become a mature winter squash . There were several there at her booth with different gloss . Some were light-green with orangish stripes and some were salmon colour with greenish - Second Earl Grey stripes . She articulate there really was n’t any divergence in the predilection . I ended up with the Salmon River - green striped one . It weighed about 15 lbs and has a squat oval shape alfresco and lovely orange color at heart . It smelled like a crossbreed between a cuke and a melon .
I got the seeds and roast the squash . To roast it , I quartered it and rub some petroleum on it and put it on a cookie sheet . Then I added a minuscule water in the bottom of the pan so it would n’t dry out . I put it in the oven at 350 ° and placed some aluminium foil slackly over it so it would not burn . It pack about an 60 minutes to wangle . Afterwards , I put the flesh in a deep freezer Ziploc and will later cook squash lasagna with béchamel sauce .
So Calabacita squash can be used to make Calabacitas in other summer or later in the fall used in wintertime squeeze dishes .
Here is a formula for Calabacitas from New Mexico :
1 lb or more Calabacita squash or any summer squash , cubed
3 - 4 ears sassy corn cut off the cob or 1 can corn
1 chop onion plant
cumin to smack
New Mexico green chili con carne to savour
Sauté the onion plant , tally the squash and corn and sauté till tender .
lend cumin to smack . Add New Mexico unripe chili to sample .
