Celebrating the Commonwealth cushaw // Intercultural Microgrant Guest Blog
The following guest blog is from 2024 Intercultural Microgrant recipients Handbarrow & Renew Appalachia, who received support through our Artist-led Projects Generating Economic Impact in Eastern KY fund. Learn more about this project at kyrux.org/microgrants/2024.
The Commonwealth Cushaw Project helps people grow, use, and save seeds from tasty, nutritious cushaw squash.
The project began in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky where cushaw squash has been an important winter “storage crop” since before memory.
Some cushaws have been bred for tasty edible seed, and others for prolific summer squash or long-storing pumpkin characteristics. Many varieties of cushaw serve multiple roles.
Cushaws can often be grown with minimal irrigation or inputs like fertilizer, herbicide, or pesticide. The guide produced by the project presents a low-input approach to cultivation. It also includes seed-saving concepts and procedures that can be used to select and share seeds that become more adapted to your climate each season.
What are cushaws?
Cushaw, or kershaw, is the common name in English for the botanical species of squash Cucurbita argyrosperma. The cushaw was domesticated in Mexico and it has traditionally been grown in the approximate region from Nicaragua to the Southeastern United States.
About the Project
The Commonwealth Cushaw Project is a partnership of Handbarrow and Renew Appalachia in Kentucky, USA. The project receives technical assistance from Going to Seed. The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange and the Foundation for Innovation and Sustainability supported the development and publication of the guide.
Explore the Commonwealth Cushaw Guide & Find Resources
The homepage of the guide website.
The Kentucky Intercultural Microgrant Program is a seed grant to support two or more individuals or organizations collaborating across distance, difference, or sector on projects that celebrate and connect Kentucky's people and places.
Launched with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Fund for the Arts, the Monument Workshop at UK, the Josh May Memorial Fund, and individual donors, the 2024 Microgrant Program invests in a series of seed grants (awards from $250-2000) to support short-term projects that foster dialogue, connection, or collaboration among Kentuckians from disparate backgrounds, identities, or experiences. Projects that involve diverse partners and invite the public to participate are preferred.