Waltham Butternut Squash Seeds

Named for the old University of Massachusetts’ Waltham Field Agricultural Research Station, where – in the 1930s – an insurance company salaryman, Charles Leggett, turned up with a bell-shaped, smooth-skinned squash that he had developed in his home garden. This home breeding project became the original seed stock used by UMass crop breeders in the development of a stable, consistently-producing new squash type, the butternut.

This heirloom ‘Waltham’ variety is as close as we can get to the original grown in Leggett’s garden: long-storing (great to keep around for winter meals), rich, smooth orange flesh (not stringy, and slightly nutty-sweet), averaging about 3-pounds and about 10-inches in length.

Waltham is the perfection of a northern climate squash. Maturing in as little as 85-days, it lasts many months in storage, with the flavor only getting better as it cures. The small seed cavity means it has a very high proportion of flesh. In our experience, this variety performs especially well in dry summer conditions with targeted root zone irrigation (rather than overhead sprinklers).

25-seeds (2.5 grams).