Imagine the ’date packed’ on your seed packet is 800 years ago... | WWOOF UK
As the story goes, some six years ago, during an archeological dig on the Menomonie Reservation, a clay ball was unearthed. It was clear that there was something inside of this clay ball and, when opened, what was found were squash seeds, carbon dated to 800 years old. Some of these seeds were planted and they grew and bore fruit. Each of these large squash produce as many as 600 seeds. These seeds have been shared and grown throughout the indigenous community and news of their existence is filtering beyond tribal borders. Winona LaDuke, an enrolled member of the White Earth Tribe and a well-known activist, writer and environmentalist was given some of the seed and people kept asking her what its name was. She eventually opted to give it a name: gete-okosomin which means “really cool old squash” in Ojibwemowin.
