#coololdsquash

[seedkeeping]

Gete Okosomin (Cucurbita maxima) - a delicious long-storing winter squash from some Miami elders in Indiana who’ve been caring for this variety for perhaps thousands of years. It can also be sun-dried and stored - I gotta try that this year! It was named by Winona LaDuke (means Cool Old Squash in Anishinaabe) at White Earth Land Recovery Project, which is where my seeds came from and where I will send them back. My friend Zach coordinates their seed library and said he could use them. These are from the last 2 of 6 fruit I got this year - I made notes on their qualities for selection purposes. #geteokosomin #cucurbitamaxima #coololdsquash #seedsaving #seedkeeping (at South West Philadelphia)

[seedkeeping]

We are both just so happy about this Gete Okosomin harvest. The flesh is so fragrant and melon-like (in flavor) for a winter squash. It was named by Winona LaDuke, one of my heroes, and means Cool Old Squash in the Anishinaabe language. Despite the stories going around, the seeds of this squash were not found in a clay pot and dated to be 800 years old. That was another, less tasty squash. This one is so amazing, delicious, and able to store so well (low carbon food!) precisely because it has been cared for year after year by the Miami people in Indiana for countless generations and generations. For the full story, see the White Earth Land Recovery Project’s Indigenous Seed Library page. Also, please order seeds from them to support their work - I was told that the Anishinaabe elders at White Earth prefer the seeds not be commodified, so I encourage folks to donate to their important seed keeping work and get seeds that way. Photo by Debbie Warden! #geteokosomin #cucurbitamaxima #seedkeeping #whiteearthlandrecoveryproject #whiteearthreservation #indigenousseedlibrary #coololdsquash (at Newtown Square, Pennsylvania)