Our Year With The Seminole Pumpkin

There is a lot of natural variation in the Seminole Pumpkin. Check out the different shapes! The greenish tinge means it is under-ripe. Curing for a week or so should sweeten them and then they will be the pink-brown color.

For us, it all began one day last winter when Nat and I were making our crop plan for the year. We had been talking about seed sourcing and how it would be really great to have a large supplier growing varieties specifically for the south (see box below for where we source our seeds and why). Nat remembered growing the Seminole Pumpkin from his time farming in Florida. His farmer friend from down there had been singing its praises as well. The whole idea with the Seminole Pumpkin is that it can tolerate much hotter and more humid conditions than other winter squashes. We decided that it was on the must-try list. We sourced our seed from Southern Exposure Seed, completely buying them out last year. We also bought a variety they call the South Anna Butternut, which is a cross between the Seminole Pumpkin and the Waltham Butternut, the industry standard for winter squash.

The Seminole Pumpkin originates from South Florida, and is actually a cultivar stemming from a native variety. They were cultivated by aboriginal Floridians and later the Calusa, Creek, and Miccosukee people. Early growers would plant them at the base of trees (sometimes girdling the trees beforehand to kill them), as a natural trellising system. In fact, one name for the gulf region of Southwest Florida is Chassahowitza, or "pumpkin hanging place." All parts of the plant are edible, including leaves, flowers (usually male ones are taken so female ones can form fruits), young fruit (can be eaten like summer squash or pickled), and of course the mature fruit and seeds. The fruits store up to a year in proper conditions. In the humidity of south Florida, they don't make it quite that long, which is why early growers would slice and dry the fruit to preserve it. The simplest preparation for a mature Seminole Pumpkin is to roast it whole in an open wood fire.

On the farm, we planted our Seminole Pumpkins and their South Anna Butternut cousins in two waves: first, we planted seeds in the greenhouse and then planted the transplants out in early June. Then, we direct-seeded some seeds in some more beds later into June. That second planting was a little late, honestly, but the plants grew like crazy! We had vines traipsing across our summer squash planting, out tomato rows and straight into our okra patch! The largest leaves topped out at 24 inches wide. I am telling you; this plant grows with VIGOR! The South Anna variety grew very well too but was a little smaller in leaf size and vine length. Even after getting flooded in the mid-August deluge, the plants just did not care. They kept growing and growing.

One thing preventing us from a maximized yield was a groundhog that got into the patch and made his burrow right in the middle, coming out every night to gnaw a different squash. I'm not sure why he can't just pick one and eat the whole thing! We plucked all the squashes so the groundhog couldn't damage more. I do think that the vines were still growing and would have made more fruits had we planted a tiny bit earlier (even one week makes a big difference). Still, I would call our year with the Seminole Pumpkin a resounding success!

We are excited to continue this experiment for next year and expand our search for regionally-appropriate varieties. Next season, we will give these pumpkins their own patch of ground where they can vine for meters without disturbing other crops. We will save a little seed from our own fruits to bolster the limited supply available for purchase. We will plant this beauty before all the rest of our squashes so it can reach its full potential; or at least, that is the plan. We will all find out together what next season holds for us.