A long, long, time ago……squash was cultivated by the peoples living in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Like, really a long time ago.  Ten-thousand years to be not quite exact but in the ball park, according to an article in Science.  “Squash seeds, peduncles, and fruit rind fragments” were re-analyzed after being dug up in the sixties, placing the date of squash cultivation longer ago than maize and beans in the Americas.

Before reading Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, I thought vegetables were vegetables (never-mind the vegetable that’s technically a fruit thing.)   I never considered there was a difference between a native vegetable and a non-native vegetable.  But really, many of the vegetables we commonly eat today wouldn’t be here unless their seeds had been carried with immigrants crossing oceans.  Maize (corn), beans and squash, are vegetables that were already here.

I was humming along pretty well with this new knowledge until I saw squash advertised as Japanese squash, from Sun Gold Farm.  I was looking for a pumpkin for Roasted Pumpkin and Tomato Soup and thinking about using their sugar pie pumpkins. 

I asked the guys for their recommendation for my recipe, and they suggested I consider the Uchiki Kuri squash: a Japanese squash,  pumpkin-like, but a bit sweeter, and apparently becoming popular with local chefs.  This seemed to contradict the squash as a native vegetable concept.  But I felt cool that I was about to make soup with the new “it” squash.

After some research, I had a “well, duh” moment.  (You know, kind of like an “a-ha” moment, but much more frequent.)  Just like folks brought their beloved vegetables across oceans to our country where we still enjoy them today, people took vegetables back across oceans, where over time, they created their own varieties.  Hence the Japanese variation of squashes. 

This may have happened as early as the 1500s or as late as fourteen years ago depending on your source.  Though I guess if it really was only fourteen years ago, then that blows the whole Japanese squash cultivation over time theory.  But it could have happened, right?

Well, whenever it happened, now, these Japanese varieties are so popular in Japan that we grow many here and ship them there.  Southwestern Colorado is a popular spot for growing Japanese Squash.

At home, I peeled and sliced the squash, added it to a roasting pan with tomatoes, onions, and garlic, and drizzled it all with olive oil, white wine, salt and pepper.  I roasted everything in the oven until soft, let it cool, then pureed it.  We ate it with some crusty bread.

Although it was good, it wasn’t as sweet as I expected it to be.  Nowhere near as sweet as a butternut or acorn squash soup.  And part of me really wanted to try pumpkin in soup.  So, I think I’d like to make this again using the real deal.  

That’s what I get for trying to be cool.