The History of Honeynut Squash

In 2009, the farm director of Stone Barns Center, Jack Algiere, invited a group of plant breeders from Cornell University to have a meal cooked for them by Chef Dan Barber at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. After the meal, Barber gave a kitchen tour to a plant breeder named Michael Mazourek, who was working as an associate professor at Cornell in plant breeding and genetics. During the tour, Barber reportedly grabbed a butternut squash and challenged Mazourek to create a tasty, smaller version of it. In fact, Mazourek had already been working on a mini squash. The two decided to work together. Mazourek started by breeding two types of squash seeds together, then harvested the offspring, and took seeds from those vegetables and planted them. He then began selecting seeds from the best yields to increase uniformity. Notably, Mazourek had Barber cook and taste-test the frontrunners and bred the squash not for yield as was customary, but for flavor. Eventually, he was able to create a notably sweet, small squash with thin skin that didn’t need peeling. He gave it the name “Honeynut” because of its color and sweetness. Seed companies were initially reluctant to make it available because of its small size, but after Barber introduced the Honeynut at the G9 Chef’s Summit in 2013, it began to take off rapidly. Today, Honeynut squash is a fall favorite at farmer’s markets throughout the Northeast and is increasingly available at grocery stores in other parts of the country, too.