The Man Behind the Vine: Christopher M. Cordaro and 100 Years of Cucuzza in Louisiana
There are things you learn in a garden that no classroom can teach. The way a cucuzza vine climbs without being told to. The exact moment a squash is ready to pick — not by the calendar, but by the feel of it in your hand. The patience it takes to do the same thing, the right way, year after year after year.
Christopher M. Cordaro has been learning those things his whole life. And so did his father before him. And his father’s father before that.
A Seed Planted More Than a Century Ago
The Cordaro family’s connection to cucuzza squash didn’t begin in Ruston, Louisiana. It began in Southern Italy, where this long, pale green gourd has been a staple of home cooking for centuries. When Italian immigrant families made their way to America in the early 1900s, they brought very little with them — but they brought their seeds.
Those seeds were precious. Not just for the food they produced, but for what they represented: home, identity, and a way of eating that no grocery store shelf could replicate. Cucuzza was the taste of the old country, and families like the Cordaros made sure it took root in the Louisiana soil just as it had in the Italian earth they left behind.
For more than 100 years, the Cordaro family has kept that tradition alive — tending the same heirloom variety, selecting the finest seeds each season, and passing the knowledge from one generation to the next.
Christopher Steps Into the Vines
Christopher M. Cordaro didn’t just inherit a garden. He inherited a responsibility.
For over 40 years — since the early 1980s — Christopher has personally grown, hand-picked, and sold authentic Italian cucuzza squash from his home at 718 W Tennessee Ave in Ruston, Louisiana. What started as a continuation of family tradition quietly grew into something larger: one of the most trusted sources for fresh cucuzza and heirloom cucuzza seeds in the entire United States.
There was no grand business plan. No marketing strategy. Just a man who knew how to grow something extraordinary, and neighbors, families, and restaurants who kept coming back for it.
Word spread the old-fashioned way — through kitchens, family dinners, and the simple truth that what Christopher grows tastes like nothing you can find anywhere else.
What 40 Years of Doing One Thing Right Looks Like
Christopher’s process has never changed because it doesn’t need to.
Every squash is hand-picked at peak ripeness. Not a day too early, not a day too late. He knows the plants the way you know a longtime friend — by their habits, their quirks, the subtle signs that tell you when they’re ready.
Seeds are selected by hand each season, keeping the lineage of the original Italian heirloom variety intact. These aren’t seeds from a catalog. They are the direct descendants of the seeds his family carried across the Atlantic more than a century ago. Every packet of Cordaro cucuzza seeds sold today carries that unbroken chain.
Orders are packed fresh and shipped the same day — no cold storage, no warehousing, no middlemen. When you order from C.M.C., you are ordering from Christopher himself.
More Than a Farm — A Living Piece of Italian-American Heritage
Cucuzza squash is not a vegetable you find at the supermarket. Most Americans have never seen one. But for Italian-American families across the country, it is something deeply familiar — the squash that grandmother used to make, the one that showed up in the garden every summer, the ingredient at the heart of recipes that don’t exist in any cookbook because they were only ever passed down by hand.
Christopher Cordaro is one of the last people in the country growing and selling this vegetable at scale, with this level of authenticity and care.
When customers order from him, many of them write back. They tell him about their grandparents. About the cucuzza that used to grow in their backyard in New Orleans or New Jersey. About the soup their mother made every summer and the way it tasted like nothing else in the world. Christopher’s cucuzza brings those memories back to the table.
That’s not something you can manufacture. It takes 100 years to build it.
The Season, The Work, The Legacy
Cucuzza grows in Louisiana from roughly June through September — a short, abundant season that demands full attention. During those months, Christopher is out in the garden every day, doing what his family has done for generations.
He is not a brand. He is not a corporation. He is a farmer and a steward of something rare, doing the work because it matters, because the tradition matters, and because somewhere out there is an Italian-American family that hasn’t tasted real cucuzza in years and doesn’t know yet that they can order it fresh to their door.
C.M.C. Wholesale Food exists because of Christopher. And Christopher exists, in many ways, because of the century of family that came before him.
Order Fresh Cucuzza This Season
Fresh cucuzza squash and heirloom seeds are available during the growing season. Christopher ships nationwide from Ruston, Louisiana.
- 10lb Fresh Cucuzza Squash — $69 (shipping included)
- 20lb Fresh Cucuzza Squash — $99 (shipping included)
- Dozen Heirloom Cucuzza Seeds — $9
📞 Call or text Christopher directly: (318) 607-6062 ✉️ Email: cucuzza7@hotmail.com 🛒 Shop online at cucuzzasquash.com
C.M.C. Wholesale Food | 718 W Tennessee Ave, Ruston, LA 71270 | Family-grown since the 1920s
