History of the Striped Maycock squash.

Greetings! Blake here wanna find out the overall history of the Striped Maycock squash and its historic connection to all Native tribes in the eastern U.S. I've heard about this since last year from Stephen Smith from Roughwood Seed about it's historic use and range in the pre Columbian period to the post settlement time. I wanna find out your take on the time periods the squash has been used before or after European settlement on this land. Out!

I don't know much about the history of the Maycock squash other than it being historically grown in the same region as the Nanticoke C. maxima squash. The morphology of this maycock squash suggests that it might be related to the Mandan squash that was historically grown in the North Dakota region of the United States. One historical method of preserving C. pepo squash among the Hidatsa people of North Dakota involved dehydrating the squash over an open fire. I have not been able to find much information on how to replicate this historical process of preserving squash for food, but you might be able to replicate a similar process by drying the maycock squash in a food dehydrator after slicing the squash into small rings or chunks.

Your original post suggests that you've already contacted Stephen Smith to learn about the history of Maycock squash. If this is not the case, I'm in contact with him on Facebook, so I could ask him if he has any more information about this squash.

Although you may have already contacted Stephen Smith about Maycock squash, I just asked him again about the squash through Facebook messenger. Here is what he had to say about historical preservation methods and food uses for Maycock squash:
"It was dried and stored like beef jerky, let become “gourds” to be used as bowls, spoons, etc., eaten green when young and tender, and baked with when larger."
Just as I suspected, one method of preserving the squash involved smoking the squash over an open fire. I'll see if anyone else is familiar with Maycock squash.

Hey Ryan, Blake here to find out if you or anybody you know is growing the Maycock pumpkin, cause I'm trying to stay away from modern pepo varieties such as yellow crookneck, scallop, Connecticut and the like to help restore my Native American gardens back to their Pre-Columbian state as much as I can, while I add post Columbian types such as sweet potato and Hubbard squashes to add more historic flavor and culture to liven up the story of my community and region at my community farm. If you're or anybody's growing them, then I'd like to have some to be shared in order to plant more to return the historic flavor and culture to my gardens. Much love!

Hi, I'm looking for seeds of the Nanticoke maycock squash.  Do you have any seeds available?
ta.kirby@hotmail.com

In case you haven't found another source, this is where I found the Nanticoke squash.

https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/collections/squash/products/nanticoke-squash

Greetings! My Striped Maycocks have done extremely well at my community farm. I wanna find out if anybody has grown them by far? And could I have more seed of the Striped this fall?

Back again! Anybody know any recipes for stripe Maycock? Any more historic details besides the ones already presented on how Native Americans ate it after the settlers came here and stuff? And did the settlers also had maycock as well?

Back again! I've tried to reach Stephen from Roughwood about the Maycocks and how I can eat them. I'm waiting back on the recipes cause  just harvested them today from my farm.

Anybody heard of its close cousin the finger squash which also used to be grown by the Lenape and other tribes throughout the eastern U.S? It was grown by the Lenape at Raccoon Creek, New Jersey a long time ago. Please give me some historic details of the finger squash.

Back with some huge news! Harvested some medium size stripe Maycock today at my community farm in Chicago today. Wish I had some pictures of these pumpkins and they was bigger than my hand. Got a couple about the size of a small basketball. I'll find some pictures of my large stripe Maycock soon!

Hello! Anybody in? You all act like you missed my reports of my harvested Maycock and my possible interest in the finger squash which used to be grown by other Native American tribes other than the Lenape.

Thanks for showing the maycocks at the seed library meeting, Blake.  I'd like to try growing those next year, if you keep any seed.  I have not heard of finger squash.   Do you know if the name means it is long, like a delicate, or does it have little finger projections?

Yeah, I do have some seed of those right now. I'm gonna send those to you either on the 2nd Tuesday of next month or on the 16th. On the finger squash, it was recently called the Yugoslavian squash or pineapple squash, but those are labeled false since it's originally a Native American squash that belonged to the Lenape and other tribes who used to have it centuries ago according to Stephen Smith from Roughwood Seed in Philadelphia. Any of you grown finger squash this year?

By the way, the finger squash look like a white octopus without eyes or mouth and just short fingers. Go look it up and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Anybody grown the Mandan squash this year? I just wanna compare my Maycock to the Mandan to see if they're alike and other characteristics that bridge the gene pool to find how much they have in common with one another. What's the history of that historic summer squash from the Dakotas?

Blake, there’s some pictures of Mandan squash in this thread:webpage

Why did Lofthouse cross breed his squashes all of a sudden? Is he trying to make his own breed of squashes?

Hi Blake,
Do you possibly have any Maycock squash seeds to share? I'm Also looking for the finger squash seeds for my lenape garden.

Hey Theo! I don't have any finger squash right now, but I have more Striped Maycock seed to give you right now. Drop your info in my envelope and we'll go from there.

Anybody grown any maycock squashes beside me? I'd like to see some pictures on here if anybody's able. Happy Winter!

Greetings all on this New Year. Could anybody share with me which Maycock squashes they've grown from the past year from Roughwood? I've only grown the striped. This year I'll be growing it again as well as the white warty type at my community farm. Anybody grown the white warty squash before? If any of you have, please send me some pictures of them in this column. Out!

What's happening! Long time no see. I'm planting again my striped Maycock squash this year at my community farm. I'm looking for more historic documentation of the squash if anybody has any to help me solidify confirmation on the historic use and range of the squash.

Can you please share more information on the maycock squash? I googled it and this thread came up in the first place. All I can find is this picture online:

Maycocks are rare eastern woodland squashes grown in America by the Lenape and other eastern tribes. They range from small to medium at most, but I had some about the size of a basketball last year. They're used for summer zucchinis or cucumbers or as regular winter squashes like the accorn and field pumpkin types. They were even used to make spoons, bowls and decorating gourds years ago. Go to the Roughwood Center's site and find William Weaver to learn more about these squashes. I'm growing two types of Maycocks a striped and a warty. They're pre-Columbian type and I'm using them for my pre-Columbian gardens this year. Thanks for dropping by!

I looked up his website: truelove seeds.com and maycock squash is not on the list. Yet I found so many other interesting varieties to try out! Thanks for recommending.

Google up Roughwood Seed Collection or its Facebook page to find Mr Weaver. Or you can look up Striped Maycock squash one of my previous forums to learn more on Permies.

Hello folks! I wanna report my progress of my Lenape squashes, similar to the Striped Maycock. I had some white warty and getting the Chestnut one this year. I hope I'll send you some pics if I'm able. Anybody heard of Tall White Maycock type before?