Spaghetti squash or Vegetable Spaghetti (Cucurbita pepo) was growing in various places around the United States before the beginning of the 20th century, but it was not permanently accepted until the Sakata Seed Corporation refined it, and marketing master Frieda Caplan (the formidable founder of Frieda’s, the specialty produce company) brought it to America’s attention. (It is still not to everyone’s taste. As the gardening writer Sylvia Thompson observes: “With every other squash, the aim is to get rid of the fiber in the center. Spaghetti squash is where all those banished fibers went.”)
