Looking for tasty, easy-to-grow vegetables?
Consider the pumpkin, which has been a staple of Dakota gardens for centuries.
Our indigenous peoples grew and harvested pumpkins. They sliced the young fruits and stuck them on willow poles to dry in the sun. Pumpkins were essential for surviving the cold winters.
At the famous Three Sisters Farm, pumpkins were one of the crops, along with corn and beans. The pumpkin vines shaded the soil, conserved moisture, and acted as mulch to prevent weeds. If you're interested in a taste of the past, you can buy Arikara, Mandan, and Lakota pumpkin seeds online by searching Google.
Credit also goes to the work of researchers at North Dakota Agricultural College, who introduced buttercup squash to the world in 1931. Many cooks say buttercup has the best flavor of any squash. Popular varieties today include Burgess, Bon Bon, and Uncle David Dakota Dessert.
When buying winter squash seeds, look for varieties that are resistant to powdery mildew and ripen within 100 days. The best performers in our tests are Autumn Delight and Carnival Acorn pumpkins, Butterbaby and Early Butternut butternut pumpkins, Bush Delicata sweet potato pumpkin, Primavera spaghetti pumpkin and Sunshine Kabocha pumpkin.
And let's not forget summer squash. This neglected vegetable also has a rich history in the Dakotas. One hundred years ago, North Dakota was one of the poorest states in America. Prices were low, farmers were in debt, droughts were frequent, and swarms of locusts ravaged crops. Many families suffered from poverty and hunger.
The North Dakota Agricultural College responded by searching for crops that could provide hunger relief in these desperate times. They quickly discovered that summer squash grew well in our state and encouraged farmers to grow them. One of the most common varieties was the white pattypan pumpkin.
We trialed this heirloom variety in recent years and found that it grew very well. Unfortunately, it tasted awful. One of our researchers was a pastor in Logan County who grew vegetables for the poor. After trying pattypan squash for the first time, he confessed that the fruit tasted so terrible that he felt sinful feeding it to the poor. He instead took the squash to the county dump.
Today we're introducing you to some tender and delicious summer squashes: Sunburst Yellow Pattypan Squash is delicious and beautiful, while Zephyr Yellow and Tempest Yellow Squash stand out with their firm texture and outstanding flavor.
Other noteworthy summer squash varieties are the yellow straightneck and semi-crookneck varieties. The Multipick and Slickpick YS 26 will amaze you with their yields. Believe it or not, they are more productive than zucchinis.
Speaking of zucchini, some people make fun of its bountiful harvest. There's a running joke that if you don't lock your car in the summer, someone will stuff the excess zucchini into it. Instead of making fun of zucchini, we should celebrate its bountiful harvest. Find recipes online for how to cook zucchini. You can grill, roast, or saute it. Enjoy it in a bread fryer.
Look for disease-resistant zucchini varieties that will keep you harvesting until frost. I like vine varieties that are nearly spineless and have an open habit that makes them easy to harvest. The best performers in our trials were Dunja, Green Machine and Spineless Beauty.
Enjoy pumpkins this summer. Pumpkins are a traditional Dakota vegetable that are tasty and easy to grow.
For more information on gardening, contact your local NDSU Extension agent. Find your county Extension office at ndsu.ag/countyoffice .
