Indian Long Squash
We
stayed at Village
Inn in Annapolis, MD,
during last weekend's trip
north. Since this is me we're talking about, you probably won't
be terribly surprised that I learned about a new garden vegetable in
the process, right?
The motel is run by an
Indian family, and they were growing a squash
I'd never seen before. The vine was exuberant, running out across
the lawn in every direction just like any other squash, but when I
walked closer, I saw that the fruits were fuzzy! The crinkly
white flowers were unique too, and I was positive I'd never seen such a
thing before.
I bearded one of the
proprietors in the office and picked his brain
about this vegetable, which turned out to be an Indian Long
Squash. He told me that his family eats the long squash like a
vegetable (presumably like a summer squash?), cooks it into sweets
(like pumpkin pie?), and even 
uses it to lower their
cholesterol.
I was dying for more information, but he had to answer the phone, and
we had a sailing lesson starting up any minute.
As I walked out the
door, though, the nice gentleman called after
me. "No chemicals!" he exclaimed --- just making sure I knew that
his beautiful garden was organic. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I
told you this stay in a budget motel was the best hotel experience of
my life.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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