Carol Deppe's Sandwich Slice

[Fred Comeau]

Does anybody know if the "Sandwich Slice" summer squash described in Carol Deppe's wonderful book "Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties" was ever released? Or available anywhere? It sounds SO delicious, I'd love to grow it to use as a bread substitute.

Sort of related, second question--is the new "Breed Your Own..." with popbeans, etc. a totally different book, or basically the same with additions?

Thanks, everybody, I love this forum!

[UnicornEmily]

I have wondered that myself, and gone looking for it.  No sign of it anywhere.

I believe what happened is that she wasn't able to replicate it, so she started again from scratch to try to breed something like it on purpose, and that's what led to Goldini.  If you read her other two books (I think it might be in her third one, The Tao of Vegetable Gardening?), she talks about the process of breeding Goldini.

I've never read the first edition of Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, but I seem to recall the introduction to the second edition says that part 1 is the original first edition, and parts 2 and 3 are new.  Part 1 is about three-quarters of the book.  I would definitely recommend getting a copy of the second edition, for all that new content.  I also strongly recommend her other two books, The Resilient Gardener and The Tao of Vegetable Gardening, which are equally excellent, and contain a lot of further ideas for people doing plant breeding.

[Fred Comeau]

Thanks, I have her other books, and enjoyed them as well. I will definitely get the new edition of Breed Your Own Vegetables, I reread it every year or so.

[Carol Deppe]

Hello Friends--

As some of you guessed, Sandwich Slice was not reproducible. And before long I had better ideas as to how to achieve that shape and size with great flavor. Basically, you just needed a squash that was planning on being really big when mature. That way it would be prime raw when big enough so a slice fit into a sandwich. And I wanted it to be precocious yellow, because that characteristic gives really excellent rather than bland flavor as a raw summer squash, and it makes a delicious dry squash when sliced and dried at the summer squash stage. And it's nice to get a winter crop of died squash slices for winter soups and stews.

So I bred a squash using the ideas that the original Sandwich Slice suggested and called it Goldini Zucchini. Then I went back and did F2s on about 20 plants and identified which had the recessive for (bland) green color, or bi-color, or were PM susceptible and eliminated those families and pooled the rest and released it as Goldini Zucchini II. It's available from Adaptive Seeds, Fedco Seeds, and Quail Seed. It has good field resistance to PM, which is nice since the plants can bear from July until a hard freeze if they are kept picked and don't get PM. We're growing a big crop of Goldini Zucchini II right now.

[Professor Porcupine]

Basically, you just needed a squash that was planning on being really big when mature.

Hmm so them World Record Cucurbita maxima squashes would be super useful here? Especially if you cross it with Zuchinni (Cucurbita pepo)?

Another question is it the speed at which the mature fruit grows or the just the size? I'd imagine a fast size increase would be more tender than a slow size increase (Even if the slow managed to make bigger ripe fruit in the long end).