Sweet Dumpling

Cucurbita pepo

Appears in

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini

By Elizabeth Schneider

Published 2001

About

Sweet Dumpling (Cucurbita pepo), solid and plump, is colored warm cream and striped with ivy green, like Delicata—and, also like Delicata, it changes to butter and orange in storage. The pale yellow flesh is close-textured, fine and dry as a potato, richly starchy with a fresh sweetness and a light corn taste.

Similar squashes were cultivated in the 19th century, but this one was developed in Japan as “Vegetable Gourd” by the same Sakata Seed Corporation that brought us “Vegetable Spaghetti”, which became spaghetti squash. “In 1976, the name was changed from Vegetable Gourd because no one was buying it”, Glenn Drowns recalls. “And it worked. Everyone and his dog wants it as Sweet Dumpling, even at a higher price.”