Since we’re so influenced by the immigrants that make up this country, its awfully hard to really credit much of anything to our continent exclusively. When searching for “American cuisine” the best thing to do is to look at the native foods that the earliest inhabitants of this landmass survived on.

One such food native to the Americas is the squash family. Known as marrow in some other cultures, squashes belong to the genus Cucurbita, under which four species, maxima, mixta, pepo, and moschata comprise the squashes, pumpkins and gourds that you are used to seeing in your supermarket. Squashes are actually a special sort of berry, one that forms an outer rind.

Squashes were first domesticated in South and Central America, and made their way northward, eventually gaining a spot in the Native American’s coveted “Three Sisters” group with beans and corn, replacing the sassy, hard to work with diva, waxed beans (okay, I made that wax bean thing up). The Three Sisters were actually the three major crops of the Native Americans, each complimenting the other by providing shade, nutrients, or a place to climb. This is called companion planting, and is still practiced as a in organic gardening.

Squash can be divided into two major groups (some say three, but let’s not get too complicated). The classification is essentially dependent on when they are harvested, and subsequently what level of maturity they are consumed at. Those groups are the tender summer squashes, and the hearty winter squashes.

Next: Summer Squash.