Lebanese cousa tyoe squash
 

I never grow tons of summer squash but a few years ago a lovely friend asked me if I could try to find and grow her a squash to make cousa. I found Magda which is a hybrid, she loved it and I got to like it so it became a staple. This year my seeds were just too old and didn't make it, so for next year I need to get seeds and I would prefer to find a, open pollinated Lebanese summer squash but not the white marrow, The one I want which is like the one her family grew is very pale green, bit of speckling, bush plant, stubby, not thin like a zuchinni looks just like Magda . She tells me her family grew it and saved seed so presumably it is out there.

Does anyone have any info please.

The picture is Magda

Maybe? I am no sure if its vining or not but I had come across some anatolian squashes that I had wanted to try...
[url]http://activebazaar.ecrater.com/p/14888568/white-squash-30-seeds-anatolian[/url]

Fedco has an open pollinated one. Maybe this is what your friend had?

[url]http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/?item=1488[/url]

Looks very like one of my usual summer squash - Bianco de Trieste.

Never grown that, only eaten - it's the typical cousa in the Mediterranean / Middle East region. Delicious when stuffed. Oh to have that once more!

[QUOTE=NarnianGarden;561292]Never grown that, only eaten - it's the typical cousa in the Mediterranean / Middle East region. Delicious when stuffed. Oh to have that once more![/QUOTE]

Yes indeed. Many folks saved the core (seeds) they took out to make room for the rice & lamb stuffing, then mixed it with eggs to make an omelet.

Both the first pic that Jeannine posted (of Magda) and the one from Fedco look exactly like the cousa my family used when growing up in Lebanon. We can still find it here in the Boston area in ME markets.

I've been growing Cousa for about 30 years for my Arabic customers. I've been having some of the same issues finding a decent variety since the Asgrow variety Lita I grew for so long was discontinued about 5+ years ago. Most of the companies want to sell a light colored squash but with the thin zucchini shape. That's not what my customers want. It has to have that bulby eggplant shape so they can hollow it out.

I have been growing Magda for the last couple of years but I will get some seeds of that Fedco variety to see how it does.

If you grow for market like I do, the Arab customers like it small, about the size of the palm of your hand. Mexican customers like it medium sized. And for those squash that get missed and become giants, those the Russians like. They shred them and make a blini much like we make potato pancakes.

Carol

>>> That's not what my customers want. It has to have that bulby eggplant shape so they can hollow it out.

Very true

>>> If you grow for market like I do, the Arab customers like it small, about the size of the palm of your hand.

Correct. Part of the reason is cultural, that is: small is beautiful, and more delicate looking. Also, eating one or two leaves you room to have something else. Often, stuffed cousa is cooked together/in the same pot as stuffed eggplant (a small variety, of same size and shape) and rolled grape leaves (last layer on top.) All three veggies are stuffed with the same rice mixture, simmered in a light tomato broth, and the various flavors intermix while cooking for a wonderful rich taste. With such a combo, one samples one or two cousa & eggplants, plus a few rolled grape leaves (Dolmathakia in Greek.) Wedges of pita and cold plain yogurt on the side.

Wi- Sunflower, we are in the same boat it seems, however I have grown the Fedco one, it is the same as the one from all over the name changes slightly but it is the same one, in fact I do grow it but up to the large marrow size, if picked smaller to recreate the original it doesn't seem to have the same texture. For those who don't know the Lebanese squash it does not have the water content as zucchini, it is drier and has a nuttier taste.

I do have a list of alternatives but they are all hybrid.

Clarimore, Greybeard, Profit,Basima ,Alexandria, BarQ, Ishtar.

there is one simply called Coosa which I have not tried, and there is one called Kuta, but I don't know much about it.

And there is of course the White Bush. AKA Lebanese Marrow, AKA Lebanese White Bush ,
AKA Lebanese White Bush Marrow, and so on depending on who is selling it.It is OP.

I think I might just grow a couple of the hybrids and see if they really are.

Cousa by the way is the name of the dish that they are used in so it became verbally cousa squash, . Cousa has tons of phonetic spellings for the same thing.

So maybe if we try to keep this open we can compare notes or sources for seeds .

Taboule if you can find it in Boston markets maybe you could save some seeds and we can try them out.

Salix , the taste is very different to your Trieste.

Cousa - or Kusa - is also the Arabic word for zucchini. At least in the Levantine Arabic (Israeli/Palestinian/Jordanian/Syrian). In all those places I've seen that small variety in the markets. (One can even find ready-made emptied zucchini in supermarkets, but self-respecting women do all the work from scratch!)
Stuffed zucchini is kusa mahshi. ... My mouth is watering now...

One that looks like it is Albatoek:
[url]http://www.bobby-seeds.com/en/Cucurbits-and-more/Squash-Seeds/Summer-Squash-Seeds/Albatoek::1674.html[/url]

I always have one coosa type, also called Lebanese squash,in a container in the backyard.

As I recall Magda is an F1,but I always preferred the OP types. And just bought fresh seeds from Pinetree.

I love the nutty taste of them and would even eat them raw or cut up in fresh salads with tomatoes,peppers,onions,lettuce and whatever was ripe from the garden.

Carolyn

Drier? Nuttier taste? Dang, I need some lebanese squash in my life. I obviously have not lived!

Carolyn, thank you. Pinetree is the found source for the one I mentioned called Coosa, the only OP one and if it looks like the picture I posted it is the one I will get, I was hoping someone would come along that had grown it. I am a bit nervous that it is going to be another name for the common" Lebanese " one that has so many names and it is similar but different. I have that one. All the rest of the list I posted were hybrids.

The point of my post was to find a OP one to get away from Magda and as my Magda seeds had failed this year due to age and I wanted to get ready for next year with an OP one.

Having said that I just went to throw out the pot of mix that had my old Magda seed sown in more than three weeks ago and I found 2 very healthy wee shoots that were just starting, I very quickly said ...shush,,,and popped them back so at least I will have something this year if I haven't disturbed them too much.

luigiwu, you betcha, I grew squash for a great many years without bothering with this one as a couple of zucchini plants were enough for me. I put all my efforts into winter types till my friend asked for help.

You have to try one, but I think no climbing ones, but I I haven't actually looked.

Nanian, I know that one , it is an English marrow.