Modern Candy Roaster: From a legacy Appalachian landrace of Cucurbita maxima



I think that the squash I posted about earlier may be Gete Okosomin instead of a candy roaster.

It has been interesting to watch the plant cope with the consequences of the squash vine borer. It has continued to live for three more weeks, although at this point it does not have any healthy foliage and I don’t expect to vine to produce any other fruit.

But I can reasonably hope that this has been adequate time for the seeds to mature. The vine itself is still somewhat green so I will continue to leave the fruit attached a few more days .

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This is what I have growing. It looks a lot like yours. My patch is being terribly attacked by powdery mildew. It has been a very hot and dry summer which is very unusual for us. We are even hearing a lot of crickets which we’ve never had before.

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I was wondering if I could please try growing out any of the spare seeds that you have leftover from your Modern Candy Roaster project for you? I can send you back seed that result from the growout, and keep a little bit for our own project.

I would like to use them eventually towards our own Maxima project. A project that is similar but different. That is, if I can get them to survive to produce seed.

We were successful growing out a large mix of Seminole pumpkins of many strains late-October of last year and got a sizeable harvest this past February. We tried growing Maximus before in peak summer, they all sprouted shockingly, but were killed off from the intense heat, drought weather conditions and high pest pressure. It was those pickle worms that took them out for good.

We would try growing your seed out in either October or March for better success.

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Yes, I would be going to arrange a swap. In general I would be interested in swaps with other people who are growing candy roasters. Can I ask you to send me a direct message in December or January?

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I grew them for the first time this year and was very impressed. They grew at the back end of the garden and were not watered at all during the multi-week droughts. They had quite a bit of infestation of vine borers too. Despite that, they produced probably a hundred pounds of five-to-ten-pound squash off of six or eight vines. (*correction; 57 lbs.) Still way more squash than I’ve had for a long time.

The vines were very large and hard to keep from sprawling out of their assigned space, but a couple found their way to some bean trellises and climbed up. I left them to see what happened and the fruits did not break off the vines like was I afraid they might, but they did make the trellis sag quite a bit. Next year I think I will trellis them on purpose to keep the big vines under control.

They are very sweet without anything added. @markwkidd I would be interested in swapping some seeds, if yours are similarly good without adding sugar and if they do not get much larger than ten pounds.

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I’m very interested in this candy roaster swap, in a few months. This year and the previous two I have managed to grow a small number of candy roasters, from different sources/types/lines. This year, I should harvest seeds from at least two different lines that may have been pollinated by other candy roasters that didn’t produce fruit (yet). I’m counting the gete okosmin as one, which was part of the CR planting and seems to have viable seeds.

My candy roaster seed collection is small but diverse considering its size. Mark you made some comments about the attributes of the squash that I’ve been saving seeds from. I’ll also look through my packets of seed to see what I have remaining from my purchase and swapped sources.

One of the priorities for my project is to update and expand my description of the ‘type’ (or types) I am prioritizing in my candy roaster project. This seems more important now that I am considering planting more maximas next year that aren’t candy roasters.

I am aligned with you about sweetness.

One example of the way that this plays out is that by swapping candy roasters for orange pepo pumpkins, I am adapting my family’s pumpkin pie recipe to use evaporated milk (further-reduced on the stove) in place of sweetened condensed milk. “Pumpkin pies that only need the natural sweetness of the squash and the milk.” I bet there is a way I could express that more generically.

I haven’t grown any candy roaster types much in excess of 10lbs. The banana type I stared with may be a bit more than that. I agree it’s a good size. Big enough to be festive and ample at a holiday dinner, not too hard for me to lift or carry.

It seems like I’ve read about huge candy roaster types. I think a fun separate project would be breeding the largest variety of maxima squash that has culinary uses – a festival-size candy roaster. But I need to get the more convenient sizes to grow here reliably first.

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I’m growing candy Roasters for the first time this year, all from the same seed source.
I’ve had some very different resulting shapes though, two from the same vine are much rounder and heftier than any of the others, though some of this could be better growing conditions.
I have been wondering if the plant with the larger squash (which was much more vigorous than the others) is a mutation, or maybe some hybrid vigor from an accidental cross. Maybe next year will tell.

That being said, these were planted near enough to some other squash that there should be some interesting expressions next year – I’d definitely be interested in joining a candy roaster seed swap.

Added photos to Google photos as that’s been working in other threads, feel free to add!

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Interesting to hear about huge Candy Roasters in the same week as I took this photo. This is a NC type Candy Roaster that has gotten huge. First time growing, but from a trusted seed saver. Curious to see how it matures.

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I guess the ones I have are the banana type. This one is on the smaller side of average. Biggest one is maybe half again this size. Bathroom scale says this one weighs 2.6 lb. I like this smaller size, but it may be due to the drought as much as genetics.

I’ll post pictures of the inside when we cook this one.

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I harvested this squash today, which I believe to be one of the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange “melon type” candy roasters, even if mine doesn’t look exactly like the photo in the catalog: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

This was harvested at about 55 days after pollination and it weights just less than 6 pounds.

The SESE catalog says it ranges from 6 to 30 pounds. Due to its conditions it makes sense my harvest would fall at the low end of the scale. This is the only fruit that I’ve seen on this vine, and the only of this type. I’m pretty happy with it because this is one of only a handful of squash plants from my first round of direct seeding in the spring.

This squash plant survived with no watering, weeding, or other care. It was a dry year with one or maybe two different emergences of squash vine borers. Unless the eating quality is poor, I am excited to have these seeds for next year.

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Interesting, Mark,

I got 2 of those as well, one was harvested earlier in the season (vine was dead, perhaps due to borers) and one is still on the vine (the plant did nothing during the heat of the summer, but pumped out one afterwards that looks good).

Going through my seed sources, I think these are actually Iran winter squash:

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There is a very strong resemblance. Catalog photo of inside Iran squash:

I don’t have any known sources of Iran squash in my planting, but it’s quite possible I did wind up with that variety. I hope if it is of the Iran type, it has better flavor than its reputation and photos of the flesh suggest.

Thank you for mentioning this possibility.

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Yes, I definitely can DM you and in December or January. Thank you for this candy roaster swap / grow out opportunity

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I have a single fruit that reminds me of yours. A beautiful teal gray. Mine is smaller than yours.

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That’s a cool picture, with the weeds and the tomatoes and the squash. Everything in perfect focus and framed just right with all the shades of green around the squash. Really nice picture.

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I think this is a beautiful squash too! Just a bit more than 6 pounds at harvest. It feels dense in my hands. I’m looking forward to trying it as food in a few weeks

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I was able to talk with Bill Best for a few minutes at an event over the weekend.


He harvested one candy roaster fruit total from his garden. He shared nine seeds with me. I will share some of those with you all later in the year.

It wasn’t a good opportunity for a detailed conversation, so I don’t know how many plants he had or other circumstances about the harvest.

He said that some other folks were providing seeds for the sustainable mountain agriculture Center to sell, but it was too early in the season.

I would like to buy another pack or two of seeds because it turns out that I have fewer “original” seeds than I thought in my collection. I also have more of my own saved candy roaster seeds than I realized. There is a tan, club shaped candy roaster which produced fruit that I believe I haven’t mentioned yet here.

In a future post I will summarize what seeds I have and where the project is going.

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