Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
UNIVERSITY OF Wisconsin Iron County Extension Office members, from left, Neil Klemme, Amy Nosal, Darrin Kimbler and Andrea Newby, display four squash grown at the Iron County Farmers Market this year. The squash grew from seeds that were descended from seeds discovered in an archeological dig near Green Bay seven years ago.
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley - Some time around the year 1215, when the Magna Carta was being signed in England and roughly 277 years before Columbus set foot in the New World, a clay vessel the size of a tennis ball containing squash seeds was buried near what is now Green Bay.
Now - some 800 years later - members of the Hurley K-12 School's Garden to Market Club and the University of Wisconsin's Iron County Extension Office are working to help reintroduce this extinct type of squash to the region.
"We're reviving a squash that was, essentially, grown in this area before colonization," Darrin Kimbler, the horticulture educator with the Extension office said. "...It is a variety that is indigenous to this area, it has not been brought in with modern seeds."
The clay vessel was discovered in an archeological dig seven years ago and the seeds inside were distributed, according to Kimbler, and have since been planted as far away as Manitoba, Canada.
Named Gete-okosomin - an Anishinaabe word translating roughly to "really cool old squash" - additional seeds were harvested from each generation of newly grown squash, creating more opportunities for the squash to spread.
Kimbler believes the squash to be Cucurbita maxima, one of the five species of cultivated squash, making it a relative of a buttercup, Hubbard squash or field pumpkins.
Kimbler explained the seeds reached Iron County when his predecessor, Joy Schelble, was given five seeds that trace their lineage to the mother seeds discovered in the archeological dig.
The seeds were planted by the Garden to Market Club in a plot at the Iron County Farmers Market in spring, Kimbler explained, where four seeds grew into mature squash. Four mature squash were harvested from these seeds, Kimbler said.
Kimbler said the plan is to harvest the seeds from this latest generation of squash and distribute the seeds farther, including to the Mercer Seed Library and back to the Bad River Seed Library to build up seed stocks.
"We're also going distribute them to some local growers with instructions on how to save the seed and sort of revive this ancient variety," Kimbler said.
He estimates each of the mature squash could contain as many as 50 seeds.
"We've really got an opportunity to spread these out," Kimbler said, adding that the squash were isolated from other squash to prevent cross-pollination that would alter the species.
Clay vessels were frequently used to store seeds, Kimbler said, adding wheat seeds have been found to be viable after 1,000 years if stored in the right conditions.
"Seeds are exceptionally good survivors," Kimbler said, "... seeds are great at going into suspended animation, essentially just hanging out until the conditions are right.
"By putting it in that clay, and that clay being impervious to moisture and climate change, essentially you are putting (the seeds) in this little suspended-animation chamber."
He did note that while the seeds were native to the area, the region's climate 800 years ago was colder - a factor that could have contributed to the preservation of the seeds.
Once the seeds are harvested, the squash can be cooked the same as any other winter squash variety.
Cathy Techtmann, who is also with the UW Extension system and also grew some of the squash, described it as having a sweet flavor.
"I had to fry it a little bit longer than zucchini because the rind is a little thicker ... and it was delicious, very filling but delicious," she said.
