Sweet Meat Squash "Oregon Homestead"

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C. maxima. Another great Carol Deppe variety. "Sweet Meat" was a beloved West Coast heirloom produced by the now-extinct Gill Brothers Seeds of Portland, Oregon. Carol has rescued the flavor that made it a beloved squash variety, and selected for traits that make it easier to grow, more productive, and more climate-resilient. You can read all about the process in Carol's wonderful book The Resilient Gardener. She individually tagged, cooked, tasted, evaluated, and saved seed separately for literally tons of squash. Those that had the best flavor, smallest seed cavity (more flesh) and best vigor in cold spring weather became the parents for the next year's crop. Her new "Oregon Homestead" strain of Sweet Meat is intended for people who love good eating, who are working toward food independence, or who want a lot of delicious, storable food from their garden. It produces big yields of sweet, gourmet-quality squash that you can eat all winter. Because Carol has selected for squash with more flesh and a smaller seed cavity, seed is scarce. Open Source variety OSSI-pledged. Packets have 12 seeds.

The Open Source Seed Initiative exists so that breeders who originate new varieties can protect them from exploitation and patenting by corporations. It means that the breeder has freely given up their patent rights in order to keep the variety in the public domain forever. The OSSI pledge reads: "You have the freedom to use these OSSI-pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others' use of these seeds or their derivatives, by patents or other means, and to include this pledge in any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives."