The Steamy Side of Squash Blossoms
Once the weather gets its springtime sea legs, squash blossoms start to appear. While the culinary world eagerly awaits the first blossoms, many foodies remain oblivious to the ongoings taking place in the squash patch. What foodies, as they indulge in the delicate and tasty blossoms, would think of them as a flophouse? Some sentient beings do. As elegant as squash blossom might be, they have a steamy side.
Before European honeybees appeared on the North American scene, calabacitas Spanish for little squash, grew only where the Peponapis bee (a native solitary bee) lived, that being the desert Southwest and Central America. The blossoms had a symbiotic relationship with the natives that would take place when the female Peponapis, sipped nectar from the squash blossoms.