Blue Hubbard

Blue Hubbard is named for its skin: a hard, powdery blue-gray, oval shell that grows tough as the fruit matures. Cutting through that rind reveals meaty, thick flesh that is bright yellow-orange, dry, and sweet, with a texture fine enough to seem to melt in the mouth. The squash also produces large white seeds that are prized for roasting.

Blue Hubbard has long been a traditional New England Thanksgiving favorite. Its vines also serve a practical garden purpose: planted in a ring completely encircling other cucurbits, they act as a perimeter trap crop that draws striped cucumber beetles to the border and away from the main planting. In the kitchen, its dry texture and moderate sweetness make for a pie that turns out creamy and caramelized rather than overly sweet.

Blue Hubbard grows on long, vigorous vines that yield heavily each season. Individual fruits commonly weigh 15 to 20 pounds and can exceed 30 or 40 pounds, enough that a single squash can feed a large family. Despite its size, it stores exceptionally well and is considered an excellent keeper, often lasting as long as six months after harvest and remaining good into early spring.

The origin of Hubbard squash is not fully documented, but it is generally thought that seed reached Marblehead, Massachusetts aboard a ship from the Caribbean, after which either a Ms. Hubbard or a Mr. Gregory bred it into its familiar blue-skinned form. The Gregory seed company introduced this selection in 1909 as Symmes Blue Hubbard, naming it for S.S. Symmes, a longtime company gardener, and considered it the finest introduction the firm ever made, praising its flavor, productivity, and keeping qualities. The company's 1917 catalog went so far as to compare eating it, eyes closed, to eating cake. Under the alternate name New England Hubbard, it became an old heirloom variety in its own right.