Seth Rogers

I typically use a 20 gauge for squirrels. A .410 will do the job but you have less range and a smaller margin of error. A 22, air rifle or even a slingshot can kill one but you'd better be a good shot. They don't like to sit still long enough to give you a clear shot.

As far as eating them goes, young ones can be battered and fried. A slow cooker works best for older ones, they tend to be incredibly tough if not cooked for a while.

All this applies to the ones out in the woods that have been hunted before. I don't have any experience with them there city squirrels.

Thanks again Joseph. This pretty much confirms what I thought. The project will continue as planned.
I always enjoy seeing pictures of your squash landraces. I'll be sure to post some of my own once I get to the interesting parts.

Thanks for the reply Joseph. I guess I should have been more specific. You're right, I was referring to the C pepo summer squashes. I am intending to have crosses between the two different sub-species in the landrace as well as introducing as many different varieties as I can. Since I don't plan to sell them I'm not as concerned about the shape of the fruit as I am the taste. But if I understand correctly, and I might not, the third generation and after will tend to take after one or the other of the grandparents instead of being in between the two.

So here's another question. Have you seen any examples of crosses between the sub-species? And if so, what were they like?

Edited for clarity.

Yeah, I've heard the same thing, but there are plenty examples on this site and elsewhere of successful winter squash landraces. Just not many of summer squash. I've read Carol Deppe's The Resilient Gardener, but will add her book on plant breeding to my reading list.

I'm thinking that the offspring of two good summer squash should mostly be good summer squash, as long as I select against traits that make the plants inedible or unproductive in the future, those traits shouldn't just develop in the first few generations. My thinking may be wrong on this, but I haven't seen examples of squash reverting to a wild form without wild pollen being introduced somewhere.

Thanks for the reply and advice.

So after reading quite a bit about Joseph Lofthouse's gardening practices I've decided that I'm going to try my hand at landrace gardening.  After some thought the most obvious species for me to start with was summer squash, since it is among my favorite plants to grow and eat. There seem to be a few different people growing landrace winter squash but I can't find much info on summer squash.  As far as I can tell it should work just as well as any other landrace. I'm going to try it and see how it goes regardless, but would be curious to know if anybody on these forums has any experience with the subject, positive or negative.