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Farm Kitchen:  Pumpkins  |
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Montrose Girl
Farmgirl Legend/Schoolmarm
1360 Posts
Laurie
Montrose
CO
1360 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 12 2009 : 07:17:23 AM
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I got a large pumpkin to decorate for Halloween. I just drew on the outside. I've been told these aren't edible, but does anyone know. Why do we grow so many pumpkins if we can't even eat them? Yes, you know where my focus is. I have some sugar pumpkin I am going to make a pie with , but hate just throwing (composting) the big pumpkin.
Laurie
Best Growing |
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DaisyFarm
True Blue Farmgirl
1646 Posts
Diane
Victoria
BC
Canada
1646 Posts |
Posted - Nov 12 2009 : 07:45:54 AM
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I can't say I've ever heard of a variety that isn't edible, although I suppose it's possible. Obviously some are more suited to pies because of their higher sugar content and some are "meatier" than others. I grow four varieties and have cooked with all of them.
Yesterday I baked pumpkin yeast bread and pumpkin biscuits from a jack-o-lantern variety and it was good. I just cut up the pumpkin and baked it, pureed it and used it in the recipes.
Di |
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Windsong
True Blue Farmgirl
309 Posts
LaVonna
Decatur
Tx
309 Posts |
Posted - Nov 12 2009 : 08:30:36 AM
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I made pumkin butter a while back and I cut a kind of large grapefruit sized one in half** see note that follows** and cleaned out the center and put both sides in the crock pot. Cooked it for hours and just scooped the soft meat out of it at the end of it. That part was easy.
In my newsletter from BHG they have a recipe that calls for canned pumpkin mixed with spices, pretty much pie spices, and then blended with vanilla ice cream. Put in parfait/desert dish and top with crushed ginger snaps. Sounded good. I am going to use my pumpkin butter and try that.
***How in the world did our ancestors cut that darn pumpkin? An Ax or something??? I would have given up but I had already declared war and was bound and determined to win.*** Just my pondering.
LaVonna
Farmgirl Sister #758
www.windsongwellnessandtherapyshoppe.com
http://sadiesfarm.blogspot.com/
http://healthtalkcafe.blogspot.com/ |
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Montrose Girl
Farmgirl Legend/Schoolmarm
1360 Posts
Laurie
Montrose
CO
1360 Posts |
Posted - Nov 12 2009 : 11:08:56 AM
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hmm, good point. I hadn't thought about how I was going to cut it up??
Best Growing |
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SheilaC
True Blue Farmgirl
1948 Posts
Sheila
Vermont
USA
1948 Posts |
Posted - Nov 13 2009 : 1:22:42 PM
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| I had to throw them down on the concrete stoop outside our door to get them to crack, then scooped out strings/seeds and baked. By the way--after we were done scooping out the cooked flesh, the skins were so tough that we washed them out, let them dry, drilled holes in them, strung them with baling twine, and filled with birdseed and hung out for the birds and gave as gifts! :) |
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Windsong
True Blue Farmgirl
309 Posts
LaVonna
Decatur
Tx
309 Posts |
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twink
True Blue Farmgirl
131 Posts
Deb
Rapid City
SD
USA
131 Posts |
Posted - Nov 13 2009 : 9:04:53 PM
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If you put the whole dern pumpkin into the oven on a low setting, you can leave it in there all night whilst you sleep, and in the morning cool it down and slice it and then clean out the innards. You can always bake it some more, or even crockpot it if you wanna, if it still seems kinda woody or tough.
That's what I did last year because one of my clients gave me five huge jack-o-lantern pumpkins. They tasted just like the pumpkin pie I grew up eating. I guess I never thought about the fact that there were "different" types of pumpkin.
My Mom always used Festal Pumpkin Pie Filling (in a can but only available at certain places) - and now my city no longer has a store which sells it. Super Valu stores used to carry it all the time. At any rate, the pumpkin "meat" that I got from baking the ones I had, and using the recipe off the Festal can, came out just as good as my Mom's -- and hers were just excellent. I think the dark brown sugar was part of the reason for that!
-Deb
http://healthtalk.6.forumer.com/index.php
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you'll land amongst the stars. - Anonymous |
Edited by - twink on Nov 13 2009 9:06:11 PM |
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Annab
True Blue Farmgirl
2900 Posts
Anna
Seagrove
NC
USA
2900 Posts |
Posted - Nov 14 2009 : 03:39:02 AM
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Many years ago when DH and I were just dating, he gave me a pumpkin out of his garden
Unbeknownst to me, I had never seen this salmon colored kind before but just thought it was another variety for carving.
The look of horror and mild shock on his face when I showed him the jack o' lantern was amusing. Beings from the North, I had never seen or eaten one of those old tyme pumpkins...made especially for cooking.
So I felt badly about totally wasting a perfectly and probably very tasty pumpkin.
And yes I can cook, so you know a pie would have been right on.
I think DH at the time was secretly hoping for a pie or two.
So many years later, we have grown both vaieties...and I now know the difference.
They all eat just as well, some are just made especially for eating and are indeed sweeter |
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sherrye
True Blue Farmgirl
3775 Posts
sherry
bend in the high desert
oregon
USA
3775 Posts |
Posted - Nov 14 2009 : 07:58:55 AM
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| i love the oven idea. i am going to try it tonight. we are goingh to butcher a practice turkey. we made a plucker and want to try it ahead of time. so pumpkin now and later will be good. thanks for the good ideas. sherrye |
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Farm Kitchen: Pumpkins |
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Pumpkins
