It’s simple: more gems on more plates in the UK. That means more growing, more eating, more coordinating, more promoting and more demanding.

So let’s get into the first bit, more growing. Hopefully you’ve got a tiny seedling in your hand - let’s go ahead and plant that sucker.

Think carefully about where to plant them: they need a lot of room to spread their vines, and they can easily take over your whole veggie patch if you let them. Some people like to make a wooden frame for the vines to climb on, so they don’t crowd the other plants or touch the ground (which can make them rot). They don’t like the cold at all, and they grow best when it’s between 18C and 27C. In the UK, that means you can plant them from April to November, when there’s no frost. Look for the sunniest spot in your garden and make sure the soil is rich and well-drained. You can mix some compost into the soil before you plant the seeds, which will help them grow better. Plant the seeds in rows, about 2cm deep and 1m apart. Keep the soil moist, but not too wet, because that can make the seeds rot. You don’t need to put any mulch around them, because their big leaves will keep the moisture in the soil. One of our readers, UK Stephen Brosin, shared a great tip with us: “dig the planting hole far too big, place a handful or two of 3-4 day-old grass clippings in the hole, add some compost and some slow-release fertilizer and then plant your seedlings on top. If you have a compost heap, grow your gems on the heap!” Gem squashes are similar to cucumbers in what they need to grow well. They like organic liquid feeds that have a lot of potassium in them.

Got it? Right, onto eating: you could peel and chop them up, scoop out the seeds and roast them with some olive oil. But who has time for that? Not me! You could do what my best friend does: cut them in half, boil (or steam or zap) them until they’re soft, then scoop out the seeds. Then put some butter in each half, mash the flesh with a fork and sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top. Or, if you’re not into sweet veggies, you could season them with salt, pepper and thyme instead. You could also stuff them with whatever you like. How about some veggies and pesto? Or some beef mince and tomato sauce? I’ll leave the rest up to you.

Cute stuff done. Onto the business end:

Coordinating, Promoting, DEMANDING.

It’s a simple credo: Each one brings two. You grow gems and then next year you recruit two more people to grow gems through seedlings you grow from the seeds of the previous season. It’s like a pyramid scheme, without the dodgy mechanics and someone at the top getting rich. Eventually, through feeding our nostalgia and our stomachs, we’re going to cause a groundswell of people growing, eating, recruiting, growing some more and demanding that these jewels of the vegetable world are made more available.