Hubba Hubba

UPDATE: My mother, who is a seemingly endless compendium of all things horticultural, has informed me that our gourd is actually a Hubbard Squash.  Can’t get anything past her!

Thanks to Wikipedia, I also learned that there’s a possible North Shore connection! Apparently, the Hubbard Squash (at the time nameless) may have come to Marblehead through a Captain Knott Martin. A woman named Elizabeth Hubbard brought the fruit to the attention of her neighbor, a seed trader named James J. H. Gregory who subsequently introduced it to the market using Mrs. Hubbard's name. Gregory later bred and released the blue hubbard, which has a bluish-gray skin. Gregory advertisements for the squash date from at least 1859.

Gosh I just love stumbling upon things like that!  (SUCH a nerd.)