White Cushaw

[macmex]

Folks, I couldn't find a thread on the white cushaw, a squash I have grown, off and on for over 35 years. We got our original start from my wife's grand parents in Salem, IL but unfortunately, we lost our seed while we were living out of the country. I obtained a start of another, similar white cushaw, perhaps around 2008. I'll have to look it up. Cushaws are almost always of the c. mixta (c. argyrosperma) species, which is far less common than any of the other commercially available squash. I think the only time I see a c. mixta for sale in the store is when they sell ornamentals for fall decorations. Yet cushaws are good to eat.

Their flesh is generally not as orange as a butternut, and it is not usually as soft, but it is good. Sandhill Preservation Center publishes a recipe for stir fry, using cushaw. It is excellent.

Here's a photo a mature white cushaw.



I typically struggle to grow enough of these for good preservation, as I've usually been focused on my c. moschatas. But every few years I plant some and usually succeed in making a crop. This year I only have two plants which are going to make fruit. But they are looking happy. Here's a picture of some of the little fruit/flowers, getting ready to bloom.




I've seen remains of cushaws in cliff dwellings in the desert Southwest. Also, I recall hearing that Abraham Lincoln's parents grew a white cushaw in Southern Illinois.

[chrysanthemum]

I think I’ve heard that cushaw pie is mighty fine eating. I don’t know if I heard that from you folks on this forum or elsewhere. It’s not a squash with which I am familiar. Thanks for sharing.

[macmex]

I've used cushaw for anything I've used other squash. It's just kind of a neglected category. Another thing I might add, is that the are at least as borer resistant as the c. moschata varieties. The most common cushaw is green with white stripes. I don't believe there is any difference in their eating quality. There are also special varieties from the desert Southwest. While traveling through the northern part of Mexico we observed and even collected some c. mixta from roadside stands. I think I remember sending seed to Sandhill Preservation Center as well as the Seed Savers Exchange. One of these Mexican types was round, if I recall. Periodically I see it offered at Sandhill Preservation's website.  

[woodeye]

macmex, I hope some of your white cushaws grow well for you. I grew white cushaws one year, but for some reason I never took a picture of one of them. When you wrote about the round type cushaw it dawned on me that I had grown several types of cushaws years ago from seeds I got at Native-Seeds-Search and one of them was round. They used to sell an abundance of varieties, now not so much. Anyway, here are some pictures that I took of some of the varieties I grew. It was a fun thing to watch all the different types growing every which way. I grew them in the same garden spot that is now the Iron Curtain. The vines covered the entire area, some kept on going quite a ways out of the garden too. The round ones looked like Black Diamond watermelons for quite some time, then started changing a bit as they got bigger.

I agree, I taste tested every variety and could not discern any difference in taste from one variety to another. Cushaw pie competes well with the best pumpkin pie in my opinion. My mom made lots more cushaw pies than she did pumpkin pies, maybe that's why I actually prefer cushaw pie. 

   

   

[chrysanthemum]

Maybe you’re the one who has praised cushaw pie, Woodeye. I really felt as though I had read good things about it somewhere.

Thanks for the photos of your varieties. It’s so much fun to see different fruits and vegetables people have grown.

[woodeye]

Jul 30, 2023 13:30:14 GMT -6 chrysanthemum said:

Maybe you’re the one who has praised cushaw pie, Woodeye. I really felt as though I had read good things about it somewhere.

Thanks for the photos of your varieties. It’s so much fun to see different fruits and vegetables people have grown.

I'm not sure why I haven't grown any cushaws since 2016, they "usually" do well here. I wish I could say the same for cucumbers & beets. I don't know how you manage to grow cucumbers so well, chrysanthemum. Cucumbers are hit or miss, but beets seem to be a crop that I can't get much past the seed stage. It's so hot here now that my cucumber plants appear to be imploding, exactly zero fruits on 4 vines...

[macmex]

Great pictures Woodeye! Yes, there is a lot of variety out there in c. mixta if one looks to the desert Southwest. Native Seed Search has done a great job. I think now they are less into promotion and are actually working more with the native groups from which they received their seed. 

When we served in Mexico we often had to drive long stretches of desert while on our way to the US border for doing paperwork and getting car parts, etc. Often we'd see booths set up on the side of desolate stretches of highway. There, the people would sell things like snake skins, trinkets and squash. The squash were usually c. mixta landrace, meaning they were very much an assortment of sizes and shapes. Apparently the cushaw family handles desert conditions really well.

Squash from lower latitudes are often very very rampant in their growth habit. When planted this far North they go crazy, trying to reach for the next county!