The Dirt on Nicky

Sing a song of summer squash

Zucchini sounds so Italian, but Carolyn Jabs states in her book The Heirloom Gardener that this variety of summer squash was first grown in California around 1920. It has become by far the predominant summer squash sold in supermarkets in the United States because its narrow cylindrical shape stacks well in packing boxes and on grocery bins, it is easy for even novices to cook competently, and the plants really want to please you with their productivity.

The squash family originated in the middle part of our hemisphere back when folks like us began to settle down, and our gardener forbears over time bred a bitter but productive wild vine into one producing more palatable fruit. They were able to do this because the squash family cross-pollinates easily, and warty or odd-shaped squash were the norm long before zucchini took over.

Summer squash might be shades of green, gray-green, yellow, almost white, or two-toned. Crookneck squash plants produce fruit which are usually yellow near the short middle stem. They are thinner at the stem end but curve and get a bit bulbous at the flower end. They are usually harvested at about seven inches or so. The kind I knew growing up also had a mild case of the bumps.

Because squash are willing to change and adapt, an Italian vining crookneck variety called Zucchino Rampicante is smooth, light green with white streaks, and it might grow to two feet or longer. I had one once that grew beyond the trellis into a nearby tree.

Zucchini varieties are bush types. They are cylindrical and blunt-nosed, usually harvested at less than nine inches, and they come in colors. Black Beauty is dark green, Golden is golden and slightly ridged, Gray is gray-green with white speckles, and Caserta is pale green with dark green stripes and white specks. The Rugosa Fruilana variety are warty from the day they are born. Marrows are pale and speckled zukes from England.

Most summer squash begin producing at about two months. The simplest thing to do with summer squash is to slice or dice them and steam them a bit. Sprinkle on olive oil and parmesan cheese or a wheat germ-flax seed-hemp seed mix. Eat ‘em while they’re hot.

An adventurous cook might launch into recipes as though the purpose is to disguise the taste of your squash. Seed catalogs will say this one is sweeter, another one has a sweet, nutty flavor, and yet another has a nutty, sweet flavor. For me, they all taste like squash, and I appreciate the colors and shapes.

Desi squash from India are mostly round, pale green to yellow and baseball-sized or smaller. Ronde de Nice is another round variety, as is Mongogo from Guatemala, and Golden Egg squash is–you guessed it–gold and ovoid. These round and ovoid varieties are handy for stuffing if you enjoy stuffing things.

Patty pan squash such as Benning’s Green Tint are flat with scalloped edges producing small nubs along the perimeter. They were living on this continent before Europeans arrived. Finger squashes are a subset of patty pans with more extreme protuberances, or fingers, along their perimeters. Their origin traces back to an area in what is now New Jersey. Early French explorers called them the Crown of Thorns squash. A variety sold in catalogs nowadays is called the White Pineapple Squash, a cross between an old finger variety and a white patty pan, and it also has its origin in New Jersey, so no wonder it’s called a Pineapple Squash.

A chayote is a Mexican squash resembling a green lightbulb and is packed with nutritious everything. It supposedly tastes like a cross between a cucumber and an apple with a jicama crispness. I have not had the pleasure, but it’s on my list.

And there are dozens more to choose from, which is a serious challenge for those of us who have not grown everything yet.