Squash and pumpkins

The history of cucurbits

Winter squashes, summer squashes (zucchinis), and pumpkins are part of the large cucurbit family, along with melons and cucumbers. The Cucurbitaceae family includes about 120 genera and more than 800 species.

Squashes are native to Central America, where the fruits and especially the seeds were consumed by the indigenous people. At the time, squashes contained very little flesh and were mainly used as kitchen utensils, musical instruments, and even gourds for carrying drinks.

Although squash is native to America, it was primarily in Europe that the evolution of the forms we know today took place. It was in Cuba in 1492 that Christopher Columbus discovered squashes, and it was in 1535 that Jacques Cartier discovered them in the gardens of certain Iroquois peoples near Quebec. Antoine Nicolas Duchesne, an agronomist at the King’s Garden in Versailles, collected the names and organized the classification of more than a hundred squashes from the Cucurbita genus, supported by 258 illustrations, in his “Histoire naturelle des courges” published in 1786. Charles Naudin also contributed to distinguishing several species of pumpkins in 1860.

At that time, squashes were allowed to fully ripen before consumption, which improved yields and made preservation easier. Harvested in the fall, they are called winter squashes. Zucchinis, also known as summer squashes, appeared in the 18th century, when the Italians had the idea of consuming one variety of squash before full maturity. Before zucchinis became widespread in France in the early 20th century, they were known as Italian squash. It was in 1930 that the name zucchini appeared, and since then, this fruit-vegetable has become a staple in Provençal cuisine.
Etymology

The word “courge” comes from the Latin “cucurbita,” which also gave the word “gourde” (gourd) in French. The ancients, who were unfamiliar with squashes, discovered them during the time of Christopher Columbus in the late 15th century. The term “cucurbita” originally referred to gourds, which were the only ones known in Europe at that time (also called calabashes or bottle gourds (genus Lagenaria)). It was only in the 19th century that the use of the term “courge” was generalized in France to refer to the squashes we know today, once botanical classification had been relatively stabilized.

The word “citrouille,” on the other hand, comes from the Latin “citreum,” meaning lemon, by analogy of color.