Squash: The Prized Ground Fruit of the East
The Indigenous Peoples have not only enjoyed the pleasant flavor of squash for thousands of years now, they have been cultivating squash (and squash relatives) for just as long here in Eastern North America. By 1000AD these “ground fruits” found themselves planted among new company, in vast cornfields, purposely given ample space for vines to spread and cover the soil between the corn and (new-to-arrive) bean plants - a farming practice often referenced to as Three Sisters Cultivation.
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Squash (including pumpkins) were grown and coveted for their sometimes bright, sometimes rich flavor, though Europeans often noted Native squash for its sweet flavor. Its flesh was added to soup, bread, and "samp" - a favorite dish of corn mush. Squash and pumpkins were also enjoyed unadulterated, just roasted and mashed... or plain and raw - the name "squash" is shortened from the Algonquian term "askutasquash" meaning "to be eaten green" (possibly insinuating before ripeness and/or consumed uncooked, as in eaten raw). In New England, Champlain was given squash the size of his fist in which he and his expedition ate as a salad, most likely taking their cue from the Native folks who enjoyed squash both raw and cooked. Winter and summer squash were cultivated in the East and enjoyed in a number of preparations.
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“Askuta squash, their vine apples, which the English from them call squashes, are about the bigness of apples of several colours... sweet light wholesome refreshing.” –Roger Williams (17th Century)
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Squash - Good Flavor, Good Food:
Squash and pumpkins were prized for their exceptional flavor and texture in cooked dishes too... not just enjoyed as a raw fruit. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) enjoyed squash baked and boiled. Mashed squash could be added to parched cornmeal pudding, giving the pudding another sweet element and a pleasing texture. 18th century Lenape/Delaware cooks thought the flavor best when the squash was steeped in very little water, or in just the juices of the squash itself... This was accomplished by sealing the top of the vessel that cooked the squash with large green leaves, the leaves of the squash vine being suitable among others for this task. A pumpkin picnic was observed in Pennsylvania where four Native people boiled the squash, and without any seasoning added they enjoyed the fruit - eating the steaming squash on impromptu plates of leaves, and sipping up the water (the pumpkin was boiled in) with shells. Southern New England mothers added boiled squash to walnut milk, creating a nutritious liquid food to feed their babies.
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Along with the fruit itself being eaten, other parts of the plant were also employed in many dishes. As noted earlier, the wide leaves could be used to wrap foods, in order to trap steam as it steeped or protect the food from ashes when they were placed directly on the fire to cook. Haudenosaunee cooks used the squash blossoms to flavor stock, while the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) claimed the blossoms to be a broth thickener. Pumpkin and squash seeds were consumed, used by some for medicinal purposes. It’s very possible that many consumed the flesh, meat, seeds and all of certain types of squash in a single dish/recipe,... and not just summer squashes
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Squash Now, Squash Later:While winter squash varieties would keep for a while in good storage conditions, it was only for a few months at best. To be assured the beloved squash was available for year-round use (before vacuum packaging and refrigeration), Native Peoples often dried the fruit. They sliced it up into rings or spirals then hung them up high to dry… suspended on thin poles, or strung and hung with bark cordage. Dry, sunny, a little breezy or a good dose of smoke was best for drying squash. If outside conditions didn’t cooperate, dry and smoky air could always be found inside, up near the ceilings of the lodges… some even left some dried squash up in the rafters, probably for easy access. However most dried squash was packed into plant-fiber twined bags, bark containers, woven baskets and the like, before being lowered into food storage pits or stacked on top of upper platforms/shelves in the lodges. Stored correctly (away from moisture, bugs and small animals), the dried, brittle squash could last for two or more years… such a time frame noted historically and demonstrated modernly. --------------------Many Eastern Indigenous Peoples sliced up and dried spirals or rings of squash (possibly all who grew squash did so), however some Native women, particularly those of the Western Great Lakes, were noted to go a step further, taking their squash rings and spirals and twisting, linking, braiding and plaiting them together. As demonstrated in the modern era, some Kickapoo made ropes or chains of squash, created by linking pumpkin rings together... a traditional practice linking them to their Great Lakes homelands. Their historical neighbors, the Menominee, took strips of squash, braided them, dried them, then hung the squash braids in the home for winter use. The Meskwaki took the squash rings and plaited them together before taking reed mats and squeezing flat the interlinked squash, and then drying them fully in the sun. Some Meskwaki ladies (and likely others) put their skills on display, making what could be described as “mats” out of the dreid strips of large squashes… Indeed such a sample of squash “tapestry” exists in the collections of the Chicago Field Museum. ---------------------Besides extending the food’s shelf life, drying squash condensed the size and made it lighter weight – important for storage and travel use. To consume, it was simply hydrated. Many boiled it alone seasoned with maple sugar, or with game, and it could be added to samp or sofkee dishes. If the squash pieces were dried with the skin still attached (not peeled before drying), and the skin was undesirable for the dish being prepared, there was likely no issues. In my humble experience I’ve noticed that when winter squash rings are soaked, the skin is easily and cleanly removed from the meat of the squash... almost separating itself naturally in the water, with little manipulation. Though keep in mind many probably weren’t thrown by a little squash skin in their meals.
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Hello Cucurbita Pepo:
Defining squash present in preColumbian Eastern North America wasn’t, and still isn't, an easy task... especially with a few players involved. But one species certainly played a large role in spreading dependence on the "ground fruit" among Native farmers east of the Mississippi... the Cucurbita pepo. C. pepo makes its entrance to the East after Indigenous Peoples had already domesticated gourds and other plants native to the Eastern Woodlands/Prairies - the birth of the Eastern Agricultural Complex 4,000+ years. ago (more on that in posts #19 & 20). Some recognizable varieties of C. pepo include pumpkins, acorn squash, zucchini and yellow summer squash. And though pumpkins may be nothing more than just another C. pepo squash, some believe they may be direct descendants of the wild variety that gave way to the domesticated species.
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What did squash look like while under the cultivation of Eastern Indigenous farmers hundreds of years ago?... Probably a lot like it does today (though giant pumpkins are nowhere near reflective of ancient squash sizes). Some historical descriptions were quite assertive in the breadth of colors and shapes of squash grown in Native fields… from pale to yellow to green to orange - all have been noted. As to shape, one such observer mentions squash that were "round, craneneck, small, flat, and large oblong.” Thomas Jefferson claims a "long, crooked, and warted type" as coming from New Jersey, possibly insinuating a Lenape/Delaware origin. Indeed the ancestors of modern yellow crookneck squash/summer, a type of C. pepo, was likely grown in the East.
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While many of our modern varieties of squash may take their genetics from original native eastern squash, much has changed since then, genetically speaking. Even heritage varieties grown by generations of Native families continuously cannot stay the same, though they can be bred to have as little change as possible.* Zucchini, although a C. pepo with roots to North America, was more or less developed in Italy to be “the zucchini” we know today. And our modern carving pumpkin, developed from earlier pumpkins more pleasing in texture and sweet in taste, were bred to become, well, less tasty and more woody so it could serve as holiday decoration (more on that later). Many C. pepo squash varieties whose roots come from North America have become fixtures in so many ethnic cuisines around the world… from Italian to Polish, Cajun to Korean.
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*Note: The seeds of the Gete-Okosomin, or Giant/Big Old Squash, or Ancient Squash of recent fame, did NOT come from a clay vessel 800 years old... this squash had been grown continually until present time. This squash is not a snapshot of history but rather a continuing tradition, and traditions can change and grow, just as squash genetics are subject to with the passing of hundreds of growing seasons. But it doesn't make this squash any less important - after all, it was never "lost" (as often described), as The People were never lost either. I believe the real story is the better story just for this reason.
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Squash - the "Eldest" Sister:
The domestication of gourds and early squash played a major role in the rise of the “Eastern Agricultural Complex.” The middle to eastern United States was a birthplace of plant domestication north of Mexico - separate of any other centers of first plant domestication (such as in Mexico or South America). This means that when corn made its way from Mexico to the Eastern Woodlands, the Indigenous Peoples here had already been farmers for a few thousand years!!! Squash was grown in the East without corn or beans at first… It would take many centuries more for squash to become an official “Sister” in the famous trio (more on Three Sisters farming/origin in post #13). Instead these early gourds and squash found themselves grown among other plants - in the good company of plants that yielded oily seeds, starchy seeds and/or greens such as goosefoot/lambsquarter, erect knotweed, maygrass, sumpweeed/marsh elder and sunflower. This early gourd/squash variety - Cucurbita pepo var. ozarkana - was first domesticated in the East 4,000 years ago (likely even up to 5,000BP), followed later by species like C. pepo.
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Fast forward a few thousand years and the varieties of squash cultivated by the Eastern farmers only increased as more squash from places like South America were introduced to North America by way of European trade. The quick integration of these varieties very much attests to the antiquity of squash cultivation and consumption among the Woodlands Peoples. Likewise another “ground fruit” found a home among Eastern Indigenous Peoples in the same way. The watermelon of Old World origin (another vine crop with a 5,000 year old history, originating in Africa) was quickly adopted by horticultural Eastern communities, probably partly due to its familiar squash-like cultivation. As early as 1673-74, French explorer Jacques Marquette notes that the Illinois Indian People grew “melons” of which the red-seeded variety were excellent. Leonard W. Blake and Hugh C. Cutler point out that such reddish-brown seeds are only produced by some watermelons, and that a Kickapoo site in Illinois (occupied from 1760-1820) may have given evidence of more than one variety of watermelon grown. Although the watermelon is not native to the Americas, it has been uniquely claimed by many Native folks as traditional Native fare.
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Sources:
-“A Woodland Feast” by Carolyn Raine
-“Acorns and Bitter Roots” by Timothy C. Messner
-Chicago Field Museum
-"History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States" by John Heckewelder
-"Indian New England Before the Mayflower" by Howard S. Russell
-"Occasional Papers in Anthropology" No. 3. Paper: Prehistoric Gardening and Agriculture in the Midwest and Midsouth by Patty Jo Watson
-"Parker on the Iroquois" by Arthur C. Parker
-“Plants from the Past” Plant Remains from the Rhoads Site, Illinois by Leonard W. Blake and Hugh C. Cutler
-“Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians” by Frances Densmore
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To cite this article:
Diemer-Eaton, Jessica. (2019, November). Squash: The Prized Ground Fruit of the East. Retrieved from http://woodlandindianedu.com/squash.html
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(The following from a WIEP social media post, 11/16/19)
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We (WIEP) meet a lot of folks at our public programs who have no idea that pumpkins are edible. Not knowing you can eat pumpkin is very commonplace for good reason… commercialism is the largest educator in our society. So here’s a usual bit our audiences hear from us during harvest-time demos:
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Through precise methods of breeding, Native Peoples transformed wild gourds/early squash into ground fruits that fed large regions of Native America (and later, the world over). For thousands of years Native farmers (likely many women) bred squash/pumpkins into larger, sweeter, more productive and nourishing fruits, able to thrive in many environments, perfecting plant qualities for harvest, storage and consumption… all this for us, you and me, to prefer (pay money for) less edible qualities of some of these gourds?!? And why? Because holiday decorating is big business.
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Just think about it. We took perfectly edible pumpkins and bred new varieties from them to be thinner-walled with a more woody texture, all because these qualities worked better for carving… so we purposely made a fruit less pleasant to eat! All so we can put a face on it then let it rot until we unceremoniously toss it. How strange it is, when you think about it - that we took the history of 10,000 years of breeding, the work of thousands of Native hands and minds that went into creating and perfecting this fruit for human consumption - that we purposely bred some of these strains to actually make them less desirable as a food item!... just, wow!!!
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Many have questioned: “How can folks not know pumpkins are edible? Surely they have had pumpkin pie! And seen canned pumpkin!” Some reading this may already know the answer (probably because you’ve baked old family recipe pumpkin pies)... and the answer is: Many pies and canned pumpkin products are in fact made from other winter squashes and not of the iconic orange “pumpkin.” Most recipes and prepared pies feature not C. pepo pumpkins as the main ingredient (the iconic orange pumpkin), but C. moschata squashes instead, like butternut squash. Yes, even commercial canned pumpkin is often just other types of squash, pureed and looking pumpkin-like orange.
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But there’s no reason to cry foul here, because in the end a pumpkin is really just another squash (though some purest may take offense to this statement, and for those few I salute you for keeping your pumpkin pie, well, in fact made of actual pumpkin!). Indeed there are generations of folks who grew up baking pumpkin pies made of butternut squash, all while being taught that pumpkins were not edible. It’s not that the pumpkins weren’t edible,… it’s just Grandma had to say that to keep you from biting into the decorations on the porch! The truth is those porch pumpkins were bred to look good, not taste good. Most pumpkins, once praised for their sweet flavor (especially at the turn of the 20th century), weren’t being bred for culinary use anymore (particularly after the 1960’s). Instead other squash varieties continued to be bred for cooking use throughout pumpkin’s culinary decline, making them (and not pumpkin) top choice for pie and pastry making.
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However the trends have turned to restoring pumpkins back to their proper place as a prized food crop… as it was among both the Native Peoples who bred and cultivated these ground fruits, and the colonists who adopted and praised the New World crop. Commercial and home growers alike are planting heritage pumpkins and crossbreeding varieties with the goal (again) to enhance texture and taste, putting pumpkins back to their proper place as a food crop… as it was intended to be.
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