Table Queen (& Gill's Golden Pippin) Acorn Squashes

 

In the photo above, there are 2 Table Queen and 2 Gill's Golden Pippin acorn squashes, the Table Queen being dark green and the Golden Pippin being, uh, golden. Acorn squash are distinctive, generally vaguely acorn shaped (if you use your imagination) but with distinctive fluting. They are fairly small, running from just one or two servings each, up to about 4 servings per squash. In general, the Table Queen run larger than the Gill's Golden Pippin; the one at the top is an unusually big example. I've written about Golden Pippin before.

Acorn squash are members of the cucurbita pepo group, meaning that they are related to most of the zucchini and summer squashes, and will cross with them. In my experience the resulting crosses are rarely good; they get tough and seedy too fast as summer squash, and lack good flavour and keeping qualities as winter squash. Acorn squash are about the only form of cucurbita pepo that are eaten as storage squash, and they are not particularly long lasting. They will be good from now through the end of the year, but by January they really should be gone or rapidly disappearing, as they are noticeably not as good as they were. 

Table Queen was apparently introduced to widespread commerce in 1913 by the Iowa Seed Company (according to Baker Creek) and became immensely popular. All through my youth and really, up to today, this was the basis for commercially produced acorn squash, if not in fact the exact variety. I confess that when I started gardening I regarded Table Queen with some disdain as a common and not very interesting acorn squash, but it really isn't true, and a good home-grown one is delicious.

There is a Table King, in both bush and vine varieties, which I presume are the result of breeding and selection for more productivity, disease resistance and compactness, but my impression is that they are not hugely different. A Golden Table Queen won the All American Selection in 1939, but it seems to have disappeared. There is also a bush version of Table Queen, but mine was the classic vining version. Vines can get to 20 feet long under ideal conditions, and they are pretty amenable to being piled up on themselves, but trellising is really a good idea. Squash that have been kept off the ground develop better shapes and are less likely to develop mould problems ore be attacked by insects or other pests. I am finding that this year the Table Queen have a very tough skin, and are harder to cut than the Golden Pippin.

The Arikara first nation of North Dakota were skilled and productive gardeners, trading their excess produce over a wide area, and their vegetables have been a prolific source of genetic material for North American vegetables to this day, particularly for corn, squash, and beans. Table Queen was likely developed from one of their squash, and may not even be all that much changed from what they grew. It is certainly a very well adapted squash all over North America, from Texas to eastern Canada, from Florida to British Columbia. It has good resistance to vine-borers, squash bugs and cucumber beetles, the three plagues of squash. It ripens in 80 to 85 days from germination, which will give plenty of time from a late May to June 1st planting date. Under ideal conditions and with good soil (so not me) you can apparently get up to 8 squash per vine.

To some degree Table Queen has been replaced by similar but hybridized versions, but the original is still an excellent plant with great productivity and resiliency, and is fairly widely available.

Posted in: Ontario Food