I once worked for a certain professor who used to get tons of food-related books in the mail. One of the books was the Compleat Squash by Amy Goldman. “Do you want this?” he said one day when we were cleaning out his office bookshelves. I opened up the book. A few pages into it, I knew what it was: pumpkin porn. “Hell, yeah,” I said and took it home.
That night I looked through each of the glossy pages, skimmed the text, with growing awe of the author, whose obsession with pumpkins and gourds and squash has led to a pumpkin curing barn, for example. I found myself staring at a blue-colored cucurbita maxima called Triamble. It’s one of Goldman’s favorites (and she is harsh on some of my favorites). “I adore Triamble for every reason in the book,” she writes, “… with the dense abundant flesh (there’s no hole or seed cavity, in these pumpkins) are about the most highly evolved pumpkins on the planet.”
It’s called Triamble because they have three triangular lobes. I had grown some of the squash in the book: Galeuse d’ Eysines (warty and wonderful but also watery). Blue Hubbard (yum). Rogue vif d’Estampes (the Cinderella pumpkin). Kabocha. Turk’s Turban. Butternut. Acorn. And then, I decided, I would grow Triamble.
First I had to find the seeds. I looked all over and finally saw them in the Seed Savers catalog. Since I knew I wanted to save the seeds, I planted only one c. maxima variety–the Triamble. It didn’t stop me from planting other cucurbits–I grew a Thelma Sanders, which is a c. pepo and thus wouldn’t cross pollinate with the maxima.
The Triamble plant sprouted and ran wild around the garden. Sprawling, sprawling. It is an ambitious squash. I got a fair number of small triangular fruits. They looked like pieces of art in the garden, blue against the green foliage, that wadded up shape that my friend David said looked like a piece of chewing gum. I managed to pull about 15 fruit off the plant–one was very large and had, somehow, four lobes–and let them sit in my kitchen on top of the fridge to cure.
I ended up giving many of them away to friends as art objects, door stops, gourd-y decor. And then, I started to cook them. Inside, they are strikingly orange. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy they were to cut in half. The skin was brittle but not like armor like some squash I’ve met before.
So far I’ve made soup, curry, pumpkin bread, donuts (yes!), and pumpkin pie from the lovely Triamble. The flesh is outstandingly dry, dense, and like Goldman promised, abundant.
I’d like to share the abundance–I saved some seeds from the biggest Triamble. If you’d like me to send you some, send me your mailing address (novellacarpenter at yahoo dot com), or come by to pick them up on the farm tour this Saturday, 10am-12.
Update: i’ve gotten your requests and i’ll send seeds to you all this weekend! also, someone said the email didn’t work–try novellacarpenter (at) gmail dot com
16 responses so far ↓
Carly // March 4, 2009 at 6:36 pm
i would adore the chance to try a triamble.
i recently ripped out my front yard so that i could grow (more) large, architectural, beautiful, tasty vegetables! i will email you in a bit with my info!
karrie // March 5, 2009 at 4:00 am
Planning to come to the farm tour this weekend – I hope it is dry enough (but I cannot in good conscience wish for less rain). I’d love a seed or two!
Triamble: A Love Story « Ghost Town Farm | Famed Story // March 5, 2009 at 2:37 pm
[...] Read the original here: Triamble: A Love Story « Ghost Town Farm [...]
Lisa H // March 9, 2009 at 12:23 am
Hey Novella,
Thanks SO much for letting us tour your property and meet you and your animals! It took us way out of our comfort zone which is a good thing: keeping bees and raising rabbits for meat. I hope you got your potatoes planted…I’m looking forward to making some SWCs
Lisa and Roger H, Rockridge
c(h)ristine // March 11, 2009 at 2:26 am
yay thank you! i got the seeds! thank you, novella.
seedlingproject // March 13, 2009 at 5:40 pm
I got the seeds in the mail! Hooray! Thanks so much.
Sarah G // March 15, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I got your seeds in the mail last week! I tried to send you an email, but it bounced back for some reason. Oh, well. Thank you again… we can’t wait to plant these little gems!
Jamie // March 20, 2009 at 1:12 am
This IS a love story! I am inspired to attempt growing triamble and other pumpkins in SF. Your Blog is inspiring and always good for a laugh! Thank you so much for all you do.
Maya // March 20, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Thank you so much for the seeds!
ghosttownfarm // March 23, 2009 at 7:23 pm
yay, glad people are getting their seeds. to those of you who haven’t received them yet: i had to buy more stamps. look for them in the mail this week.
Daniela // April 23, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Novella! Thanks for the triamble seeds. I can’t wait to grow some of those freakish fruits in my front yard. I think my neighbors already think I’m a little ‘weird’ for having chickens in the city! Wait’ll they see those pumpkins! (Or are they considered a squash or not a pumpkin?) I’ll be sharing the seeds with friends in town.
c(h)ristine // July 5, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Novella–I am happy to report that my triamble squash plant (sprouting from your triamble seeds!) is thriving. The plant’s aborted one baby squash so I’m going to hand pollinate the female blossoms go forward (there are 2 viable female blossoms).
Here’s to a good harvest!
Picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cristine/3692868396/
novella // July 6, 2009 at 2:39 pm
thank god, christine. mine is doing okay, but it’s been rough with the cold start to spring, and only has two wimply blooms.
c(h)ristine // July 6, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Hi Novella–never fear: if your plant does not produce enough squash, and mine does, i will bring some on over to share!
c(h)ristine // September 12, 2009 at 9:21 am
It was a horrible growing season this year–September, and I’ve only harvested 5 ripe tomatoes (tons of green tomatoes still left on the plants), despite my getting tomato plants in teh soil earlier this year (mid-March).
But I managed to get 5 squashes on the triamble squash vine
2 are pretty much ripe now. 3 are approaching blueness.
Would you like one? Did your triamble do okay?
more time lapse photos of the vegetable garden « Writing Under a Pseudonym // November 8, 2009 at 10:11 pm
[...] 5 triamble squash this season–and they are DELICIOUS. Thank you bigtime to my friend Novella who mailed me the seeds. It was a tough growing season, but I’m happy with my [...]