Nanticoke Squash

Cucurbita maxima Origin: Delmarva Peninsula Improvement status: Landrace Seeds per packet: ~18 Germination tested 10/2024: 99% Life cycle: Annual The 'Nanticoke' winter squash is just plain incredible. It must be grown, seen, and tasted, to be believed. It is an unimproved landrace from the Nanticoke (or Kuskarawaok) people, one of the southernmost peoples in the Algonquin language family, who historically lived in southern Delaware and on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake in Maryland.  Today, Nanticoke people live primarily in Delaware and southern New Jersey (where they have merged with the local Lenni Lenape to form the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Nation). Intriguingly, this squash is a Cucurbita maxima, which means it originated in Argentina. Most scientists and scholars believe all maxima squash reached North America in the 1500s or later, so the genesis of the Nanticoke squash in the mid-Atlantic region is likely relatively recent. Nevertheless, this landrace holds staggering divers