In the Case of the Missing Cushaw

It has been found.

In this Newsletter:

• Finding the Cushaw

• Shoutout to 4 Southern Seed Companies

• Wiregrass Ecological & Cultural Project Grows

• Terroir Seeds Gives Seminole Pumpkin a Boost

• The Primrose Party

Last night I called my mom to check on her—she’s taking chemotherapy again—and while we were talking I idly thumbed through a seed catalog, not intending to order, intending only to shop. Although this is early January, we’re a month away from planting Irish potatoes, and seed-starting crowds on the heels of potato-planting.

Deep in the catalog, past Salsify and Scallions and Spinach and Summer Squash, I was surprised to find a seed I’ve mourned for a couple of years, since 2020 actually, when I realized that I had given all of mine away.

The pumpkin I lost is the hefty, curved one (left foreground) in the harvest of Seminole pumpkins below.

I have given tons of these cushaws and their seeds away. I put packets of seeds in our local library’s Seed Library (now closed down & not by us). I gave them away at the Beekeeper meetings (which I don’t attend anymore, having lost all my bees).

When I realized my place-adapted cushaws were lost, I tried to get them back. I really wanted the ones I had been growing, because they had been adapting to Red Earth Farm. I posted this on Facebook:

Then this:

The green-striped variety was readily available. But as for gold-striped, no luck. That the Seed Savers Exchange didn’t offer it was a bad sign.

Luckily, however, I found one place to buy gold-striped, a company called Gourmet Seed International. The site had a strange vibe—it looked antiseptic and ungrounded. I sent them $3 for a packet plus a few dollars postage & handling, and I waited. I waited and waited. Nothing arrived. Finally I checked reviews online and found many angry comments.

I didn’t so much mind losing $10 as I minded feeling foolish that I had given away my last cushaw seeds and hopeless about ever being able to replace this food in my garden and on my table. The loss triggered a feeling that often overwhelms me, that we’re losing irreplaceable things on earth right now and I’m responsible and I can’t stop the hemorrhaging.

Here in south Georgia, seed catalogs start arriving in the mailbox on Jan. 2. For years I’ve been cancelling catalogs, because most of them I won’t use, and this year I’ll cancel more. So I was idly thumbing, while talking to my mom about how her day had gone, pen in hand, circling promising vegetables.

I got to the W page, Winter Squash. There were cushaws! I traced down the page.

Green-striped Cushaw

White Cushaw

Golden Orange Cushaw

Gold-striped Cushaw (!!!!!)

The catalog was R.M. Shumway out of Wisconsin. Research online shows that it is owned by the J.W. Jung Seed Company, which is still family-owned. An order will go out this week, and I’ll be in the cushaw business again.

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4 Southern Seed Companies

I buy seeds from regional companies who

• sell GMO-free seeds

• practice organic agriculture

• promote open-pollinated & heirloom seeds

• and are not owned by seed conglomerates.

Because I live in the south, my favorites are

Working Food—Based in Gainesville, Florida, this nonprofit run by Melissa DeSa is doing really impressive work “cultivating a resilient local food community through seed stewardship, youth garden + culinary education.” They have Conch Cowpea!

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange—a worker-run cooperative in central Virginia, near Monticello, home to my friend the seedswoman Ira Wallace.

Sow True Seeds—an employee-owned cooperative based in Asheville, NC that is committed to making gardening approachable for everyone. They invite artists to design seed packets, and Raven’s work graced a foxglove packet one year.

And Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, with the most beautiful plant photography in the world.

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Wiregrass Ecological & Cultural Project

Turtleman with his pup, Ada. (Awesome photo borrowed from social media.)

Turtleman, also known as C.B. Adams, offers seed grown in the Wiregrass Region of southern Georgia. Below are his offerings this year. You can find him on Facebook.

I plucked this from a post. If you want to order, be in touch with Turtleman. Packs are $5 and you’ll need to DM him.

What I have available in LIMITED quantities…

Gopher Rice, a post Civil War variety of upland rice, RARE, and I’m probably the only source with it available at present

Altamaha White Corn, a pre 1800 flint corn once grown by indigenous people and early settlers in Appling County, there may be five people growing this strain currently

Jody Corbett cowpeas, pea variety selected by a farmer in Atkinson County, could date back to the reconstruction years, also a seed that’s very difficult to acquire

Speckled Butterbeans (Jackson Wonder), a pre Civil War variety selected by North Georgia farmer Thomas Jackson

Whippoorwill Cowpeas, an early variety once grown at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Lady Peas, an old Southern variety and the smallest of the cowpeas

Iron & Clay peas, a hardy variety of cowpeas with an abundant yield, good for deer and turkey food plots

Blackeyed peas, what seems to be the more iconic field pea variety of em all, good yield quality

Seminole Pumpkins, grown in the Southeast for upwards of a thousand years by indigenous people and later settlers to the area, EXCELLENT pie pumkins with a fantastic yield

Sea Island Red Okra, dating back to the slave trade, this variety was grown on Sapelo Island by the Gullah people

Yellow Mammoth Tobacco, a pre 1880 flue cured variety

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Terroir’s Seminole Pumpkin Seed Project

Last spring Stephen Scott, who with his wife Cindy owns and operates Terroir Seeds|Underwood Gardens, wrote and asked if I minded if they offered Seminole pumpkins in their store. They had read about the pumpkin in The Seed Underground. Of course I wouldn’t mind. That amazing food is part of the human commons, and my goal has been to help it along.

Terroir Seeds, as Stephen told me, “works exclusively with open-pollinated and heirloom seeds, mostly unique, with amazing flavors, and with fascinating stories.”

I promised to supply seeds to someone who could grow for them.

By March I was mailing a package to Travis Hanenberg of Deeply Rooted Farms near Canton, Georgia. Travis was already farming what Scott described as “marvelous” hardneck garlics, including Killarney Red and Purple Glazer, “something that isn’t supposed to grow in warmer areas.”

This past week I heard from Stephen with good news.

Hello again Janisse,

I’m circling back around on our Seminole Pumpkin seed project.

Travis had great success growing and harvesting the pumpkins, with an excellent harvest in both quality and quantity. He wrote to us late last fall expressing his love of this new-to-him pumpkin, saying that he’d never tasted anything so delicious and wouldn’t grow any other winter squash/pumpkin for his family from here on out. You’ve made a believer out of him!

Thank you again for growing and maintaining this variety, and for helping us with this project!

Take care.

Stephen

Soon the wonderful company Terroir Seeds will be offering Seminole pumpkins, and I am oh so glad.

(I do have seeds still, on my website. Warning you, they’re expensive.)

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The Primrose Party

Since we’re talking seeds, I am reminded of a 12-minute film from filmmaker Ethan Payne, “Seed Savers,” shot during a visit to Southern Exposure. Have you seen it? Ira and I are walking around looking at things, talking about climate change, plants, and life in general. It’s well worth viewing simply to watch the Tina James Magic Evening Primroses unfurl.

These large, fragrant blooms burst open suddenly at dusk. This was discovered by garden writer Tina James, who planted them in a container on her city lot and would host primrose parties. In the film Ira and I enjoy a glass of wine in the garden as the night-moths forage.

Here is the catalog link where your own Primrose Party starts.

The short film was underwritten by the Cockayne Fund for the 2021 Southern Foodways Symposium.

Ira tours me around Southern Exposure by golf cart.

Filmmaker Ethan Payne shoots Okinawa Pink Okra.

Peace & Pink Okra to you.