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“ As soon as the squash begins to run its sleeve across the ground it is ready for the kitchen . ” — Antonio Francesco Doni ( 1513–1574 ) – La Zucca ( c.1541 )
Squash … this one round-eyed terminal figure somehow capsulise a variety of delicious vegetables that play a vital role in some of ourfavorite dishes . It has make out a foresighted way , with a rich history and an admirable journey toward becoming the successful repast staple it is today .
The pursual is an extract fromThe Seed DetectivebyAdam Alexander . It has been adapted for the WWW .
Squash: What’s In A Name?
The write up of the domestication and growing of all types of squash started 10,000 years ago in the New World . How- ever , the appointment of this veggie has a farsighted and convoluted story , the result of human error . The name squash derives from the Native American Algonquin askoot asquash , which translates as ‘ consume raw’ . Raw zucchini makes a great salad .
Today squash rackets is used to describe four species and quite arbitrarily interchanged with another name , autumn pumpkin , which derive from the Greek pepon and the Latin pepo . Pepon was first used by the Greek physician Galen ( 129 – c.216 ce ) to describe ripe cucumber .
I get especially irritated when I see translations of formula that date back to papistical times , where mash is used to describe a fruit that it most definitely is not ! It was the first British colonists arriving in New England – Algonquin soil – early in the seventeenth century who anglicised the name to squeeze .
The Squash vs. Pumpkin Debate
As we have seen , the species C. pepo let in a type of summertime crush called pumpkin . However , the p - Good Book is also used to draw some member of the other three coinage of domesticated squash , C. maxima , C. mixta and C. moschata . In this chapter , I use ‘ squash ’ as a generic description for most type of New World species of cucurbita .
The debate over when a squash is a pumpkin or a autumn pumpkin is a squash manages to confuse not only the lay lecturer but enthusiasts like me , and there is still no internationally take definition for either .
The popular assignment of a type has a more meaningful cultural relevancy than a botanic one – which is unequivocal – and becomes patent as we follow the journeying of the tameness of the four species that are central to my culinary pleasures .
The Story of Squash
So , just how significant are squash to our corporate solid food cultures ?
Yet again we have Christopher Columbus to give thanks for insert the squash to the Old World , when he brought it back from his outing in 1492 . Writing on the history of squash vine in vegetable of New York ( published in 1928 ) , Professor G.P. Van Eseltine articulate , ‘ The story of the naturalize genus Cucurbita , if written in full , would form a large part of the story of the development of agriculture in the tropics and sub - tropic of both Old World and New . ’2
Prior to Columbus ’s voyage to the New World , the bottle gourd , Lagenaria siceraria , had been wide grown in the Old World , used both as a receptacle and for its seed , which are highly nourishing and make splendid oil .
Its flesh was occasionally eaten but was far subscript to the new arrival from the Americas . However , 16th - century botanists confuse gourds with squash and made matters unfit through incorrect categorisation and appointment that was only resolved some 200 year afterward .
Early Uses of Squash
The earliest archaeological record of endemic American clan show that they were using both gourd vine and squash primarily as receptacle but also for their alimentary cum .
Squash and gourds get along in a dazzling variety of colours , frame and texture , thanks to their ability to freely interbreed . However , both metal money evolved severally and can not traverse with each other .
Neolithic farmers of the New World were able to select from the indigenous tempestuous squash trait that yield them bang-up size , bigger seeds and , most importantly , sweeter and less fibrous flesh . They either never bothered with further amend the bottle gourd or else it was less responsive to domestication syndrome .
This describes a operation by which wild plant larn traits that make them worth domesticate – for model , loss in part or whole of seed dormancy , which means a harvest will have more undifferentiated germination and yield ripen .
Domesticating Squash
An important element in this first phase of tameness is the loss or reducing in chemical denial that can stimulate nausea or death . The second phase of domestication , key in the case of squash rackets , exploits these traits to select for increase sizing of yield , colour , physical body and edible seeds as well as something we value most extremely : flavorous flesh .
Although the succus can be highly toxic , bottleful gourds go on to be develop in the New World for their seeds but also as container and ornamentation : definitely not their frame .
Notes
2 . U.P Hendrick , The Vegetables of New York , vol . 4 , ( Albany , NY : New York Agricultural Experiment Station , 1928 ): 3 .
Recommended Reads
How to Harvest , Store , and Cure Squash
Cream of Butternut Squash Soup
The Seed Detective
Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables
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