2025 East Neuk Market Garden Adaptation Projects

[Holly_S (Holly Silvester)]

Hi everyone. I have yet to meet most of you as I’m across the Atlantic in the UK and in a very different time zone to you all, so it’s not been possible to attend the monthly calls. But I hope to see you all at the next online meet up - thank you so much for changing the time so I can attend!

I will be reporting on 2 adaptation projects we’re running here at East Neuk Market Garden (ENMG) in Fife, Scotland this year: a Butternut squash flock (Cucurbita moschata) and a winter squash flock (Cucurbita maxima). Both of these grexes have been grown further south in England for the past couple of years, but I moved to Fife in February so as part of the Farmer Support Programme we are trying to adapt these squash to the cooler, shorter season here in Scotland.

East Neuk Market Garden in a 5 acre market garden on the Balkaskie estate in Fife, about 40 miles north east of Edinburgh across the Firth of Forth. We have relatively dry conditions here for Scotland, but our season is at least two weeks shorter than further south, and our average summer temperatures are around 18 degrees celsius (64-65 F), often dropping to 11 C (51 F) at night. We grow to organic/agroecological methods, with minimum inputs and low tillage. We run a 160 share CSA and also supply local restaurants, cafes and retail with fresh seasonal vegetables. We are also growing several seed crops on contract this year, and part of my role here is developing the seed production side of the business.

ENMG have grown squash in the past with varying success, so we’re excited to dedicate several beds in the market garden to developing these locally adapted populations. The Maxima flock was developed by my friend Jayne at Oxton Organics in Worcestershire, England, and I have been helping her taste and select from this population for the past three winters. The Butternut flock is my own project started when I worked at Trill Farm Garden in Devon, England. I mixed some of Joseph’s moschata seed with some other short season varieties to create the flock, and it is now in its third season, but this is the first time it will have encountered the Scottish climate!

[Holly_S (Holly Silvester)]

We have sown the seed into flats this year - this is normal practice here but perhaps eventually we’ll try direct sowing as the crop adapts! I sowed them at the end of May, and we transplanted into the field 18th June.

[Holly_S (Holly Silvester)]

An interesting observation early on was the difference in seedling vigour between the Oxtons Maxima Grex and some purchased maxima seed. Obviously this was a different variety, so it’s not a totally fair comparison, but there was clear difference between the bought in seed and home-saved and diverse population - top half of this tray is the grex!

[Holly_S (Holly Silvester)]

We’ve had a challenging spring here in the UK, it was unseasonably dry and hot for several weeks in early spring, and a lot of crops struggled. The squash are somewhat smaller than hoped at this time of year, but they seem to be recovering so we’re keeping fingers crossed for some kind of yield! For context, we are a mile from the coast, so we’re in a maritime climate, and although it is fairly dry here in the East Neuk, rainfall increases dramatically in early autumn and temps will drop off a cliff, so the intention of this adaptation project is to get squash that produce early and ripen quickly. This is the crop on 11th July 2025.

[Holly_S (Holly Silvester)]

This is a Maxima plant on 16th July. Plants are smaller than we’d like, but we’ve had some flowering, and fruit are starting to set!