Gem Squash

C. pepo - Much loved heirloom from South Africa. Dark green tennis ball size fruit, which can be eaten as either a summer or winter squash. Young fruit are delicious sliced and fried like zucchini; quite buttery in flavour and texture. By Autumn, the fully mature fruit develop rich orange flesh and hard shells. Cut them in half and bake them, the half-shells are perfect bowls.  20 seeds

Grown by Annapolis Seeds 

Botany note: Gem is classified as C. pepo, but a number of years ago we experienced them crossing with C. mixta. Perhaps they are capable of crossing with both species? Perhaps they are themselves an interspecies cross? That would explain some of their unique traits. If anyone knows more about their botany we'd love to hear! In the mean time we keep them isolated from both C. pepo and C. mixta during grow outs.