Days to Maturity: 50 from direct sow

If you love Park's Sable Beauty (and who doesn't), here is a certified organic alternative with the same ultra-dark skin, creamy-tender flesh, and scrumptious bite. Packed with nutrition, this fruit is best picked at about 6 to 8 inches long, when it is at its succulent peak.

Black Beauty Organic Squash arises abundantly on semi-upright, open-habit plants that simplify harvest and keep you scratch- and puncture-free. This squash ripens during the hot summer months and, thin-skinned, is best eaten fresh.

Sow Black Beauty seeds 1 inch deep directly into the garden after the danger of frost is past. Thin the seedlings to 24 inches apart, or plant several seeds in hills 4 feet apart and then thin to 2 plants per hill. (For even earlier harvests, start seeds indoors.)