26/08/2026
Hello!
The autumn squash are arriving, with red uchi kuri squash in some of the bags this week. Weāll see more squash over the coming weeks and months.
Squash all originate from Central America, and they were one of the first of all vegetables to be domesticated by humans. They have been bred into an amazing diversity of forms. This one genus ā Cucurbita ā includes pumpkin, Crown Prince squash, little acorn and gem squash, patty pans, and also courgettes and marrows.
I generally like to roast squash. It softens those hard rinds and makes them easier to cut open and deal with. Speaking of which, what animals actually ate wild squash before humans came along? The hard rinds are difficult to get into, the wild plants have very bitter flesh, too toxic for small animals. It turns out that they were probably eaten by megafauna, the large animals over a tonne in weight that once dominated our ecosystems but which all went extinct around 11,000 years ago.
It would have been no trouble for a mammoth or giant sloth to break open the hard shell of a squash. Their bigger body size would have left them unbothered by the bitter flesh. Wild squash also need recently disturbed ground in which to thrive. The trampling of megafauna would have done the job.
So it seems that Cucurbita originally evolved to ensure it was specifically eaten and dispersed by megafauna. Once the megafauna died out, Cucurbita found itself trapped within its hard, unpalatable fruits, and its range dwindled. But then humans domesticated them, bred out the bitterness, and gave them a second evolutionary act.
When you want to take a holiday from Vegbox, please let us know by Wednesday of the week before!
Tom Steele
