![]() (Hah!) It also includes testimony of a similar squash grown by the Arikara tribe in North Dakota.Īdditionally, the Systematic Study tells an unrelated story of an “enterprising Wyoming seedsman” who in 1924 tried to pass the acorn squash off as a new vegetable called a “yama,” which he claimed was a cross between sweet corn and hubbard squash. It calls the Danish origin of the Table Queen into “serious question,” saying that no evidence of the variety can be found in the European seed trade, and citing a seedsman from Denmark who attests that squash cannot be grown in that climate. Was it brought back from Denmark? How long had it been there, and how much had it been changed? The Controversial Acorn SquashĪ truly delightful 1927 document titled “A Systematic Study of Squashes and Pumpkins” from the Iowa State College of Agriculture sheds some light. ![]() So this must mean that the acorn squash - or at least its predecessor - came from America originally. The English word “squash” comes from a Native American word. Squash wasn’t introduced to Europeans until the 16th century, when Indigenous Americans traded it to them. It was a staple of the Indigenous diet one of the “Three Sisters” crops essential to many Native American tribes: squash, corn, and beans, and the first one to be domesticated by them. I learned from Wikipedia and other sources that many of the squash varieties we know and love in the United States today - including pumpkins, acorn squash, and zucchini - all belong to a species group that originated and was first cultivated in the Americas thousands of years ago: Cucurbita pepo. Now I was more intrigued than ever, and needed to know: which place did this plant come from originally? Denmark, or the Dakotas? Squash: An Ancient American Food The seed had either come from Denmark or the Dakotas.” The Harvesting History website sums it up this way: “A squash surrounded in mystery, Table Queen was introduced in 1913 by the Iowa Seed Company. Now, this was hinting at an entirely different origin story. The entry for acorn squash in the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink reads: “Sometimes called a ‘Des Moines squash,’ this American winter fruit was long favored by Native Americans.” But I needed to know if the plant really came here from Denmark, so I did more searching. The article goes on to explain that the seed of the now-common deep green acorn squash cultivar, originally named Table Queen, was first sold by a company located in Des Moines, hence the name. The article cites: “Richard Jauron, a horticulture specialist at Iowa State University Extension, says the acorn squash came to Iowa all the way from Copenhagen, Denmark back in the 1800s.”ĭenmark? Isn’t it called Des Moines squash because it’s from Des Moines? Where Does Acorn Squash Come From?Ī 2016 Des Moines Register article confirms that "Des Moines Squash is a Thing." But the explanation threw me off. ![]() But it turns out the story of this tasty gourd gets more interesting than that. That’s the reason I wanted to write about acorn squash - Des Moines squash - in the first place. When the green-and-white spotted fruit finally developed and I began googling, I discovered that acorn squash (my best guess at the time) is also called Des Moines squash, because the variety originates from Des Moines, Iowa - as do I, and as does Cuisine at Home. My mother-in-law recognized it as a squash plant, and so my husband and I watched it grow through the spring and summer - big orange blossoms giving way to steady-growing green globes - to see what kind of squash we would get. ![]() Shortly after becoming a homeowner for the first time several years ago, I noticed a plant starting to send out palm-sized, flat leaves and curling tendrils from a corner behind my back porch. Let me tell you what I’ve learned about one of my personal favorite fall vegetables, and why it’s more than just a nutritious autumn side-dish. As it turns out, this vegetable has been embroiled in more than one controversy, has been named and re-named multiple times, and has an origin story lost in time. When I sat down to write an article about the humble acorn squash, I had no idea I was about to uncover a mystery. ![]()
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