Papalote Ranch Cushaw Squash
One of the most exciting and inspiring parts of being a seed grower is the understanding that our food and seed crops aren’t static relics of the past, and instead, living ecosystems that are constantly evolving and adapting to place. Therefore, the work of the seed grower isn’t only the maintenance of varieties from our past but as a co-evolutionary partner in the varieties of the future.
For the past summers on our educational farm in Paonia, Colorado, we have been plagued by infestations of squash bugs that have rendered us practically unable to grow many staple varieties of squash. This year we planted a new squash, called Papalote Ranch Cushaw, from southern Arizona. To our surprise, these squash vines crawled and reached over 10 feet long, largely unaffected by the squash bugs decimating the neighboring varieties. This rare squash variety of the Cucurbita argyrosperma (a.k.a. Curcubita mixta) species outperformed all of your modern day “classics”, with an abundant fruit set of large green/yellow gourd-like squash, filled with delicious orange flesh.
We now have a staple squash variety for years to come, no matter what shifting pest and disease pressures will throw our way with climate change. This is the future of food! Thanks to Native Seeds/SEARCH for stewarding this variety and making it available to the broader public.