Gete Okosomin Seeds Available

Many of you have been following my adventures with the Gete okosomin squash seeds I obtained last year when we were in South Dakota. There are several stories going around about the origin of these seeds, they are also known as the 800 year old squash, but regardless they are an heirloom squash seed. These seeds have been grown by Native people in North America for hundreds of years. The squash produced is not only very large, up to 18 pounds, but extremely delicious! I’ve tried it oven roasted and in a soup and both were very tasty!

When I first wrote a post about the seeds I was swamped with requests. It wasn’t until after my small harvest that I had seeds to offer. Even then I didn’t have a lot of seeds to give away. Up until now the seeds have not been available commercially. However you can now purchase the seeds from the Whole Seed Catalog, put out by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

I have been working my way down my list contacting folks that originally expressed interest in the seeds. There have been a dozen or so people that have responded to my emails. I have been sending seeds out all over the place from Tennessee to Germany! One fellow I sent seeds to is married and his wife is Cherokee. They plan to share the seeds with the Cherokee Nation. Apparently the National Tribal Headquarters is just 25 miles from where they live.  I look forward to hearing back from these folks when they start growing their own seeds. I love when people are interested in growing heirloom vegetables and saving their own seeds, it’s so important!

In the meantime for those of you who want seeds to plant this year I would suggest contacting Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Their catalog is beautiful and packed full of gorgeous pictures of heirloom vegetables!

I hope you give these squash a try; you only need to harvest a few due to their large size! You’ll be glad you did! Plus if you order them from Baker Seeds they will be donating all proceeds from the sales of this squash to Native American non-profit organizations. Sounds like a win-win to me!