So. I know it has been a while. I promised to write after I finished my first sailing trip back in June. But from that trip i quickly entered a summer of madness, teaching psychology to a bunch of unwieldy, yet terribly amusing, high school students at Amherst college. Needless to say, i got caught up in teaching and suddenly blogging fell by the wayside.
But now that I have officially moved to Maine and been living here for over a month, I feel grounded and relaxed enough to start up again.
I am inspired to write now because of a particularly exciting harvesting day I participated in last week. The school where I teach has a working organic farm and students and teachers alike participate in the growth of the food that will eventually fuel their bellies as part of the delicious meals served to us in the dining hall. I was assisting students in harvesting winter squash when we noticed some interesting mutant plants. These squash were shaped like butternuts but possessed the skin of watermelons (see pics below). How was this possible?
Giant (and baby) squashy watermelons
In speaking with Margaret, the farm manager, we learned that squash and watermelon are both cucurbits, or members of the Cucurbitaceae family. As such, they are entomophilous, which means they are pollinated by insects, in this case, bees. The bees will bring the pollen grains containing male gametes to the carpel of the female gametes thus aiding in the sexual reproduction which produces the veggies we eat. But since both watermelon and squash are cucurbits, the bees have trouble telling the difference and often times bring the male gamete from one (in this case, from the watermelon) to the female gamete of another (in this case, squash). The result? MUTANT SQUASHYWATERMELONS! Great for looking at. Not so great for eating. But, I’m planning on trying to make some experimental mutant soup anyway….
If even Mother Nature is experiments in genetic engineering, maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all?
