Pie Pumpkins Still on the Vine
October is definitely pumpkin month. The Boston Globe has had several articles about the shortage of pumpkins in the northeast due to all the wet weather we had this summer. I'm realizing that having a garden on land with a slight incline is a very good thing indeed. Much of my garden did fantastic this summer. And I can only assume it's due to the drainage of my slightly inclined garden. There was some fungal disease but not much more than normal. Except for my entire tomato crop which I lost. I had one harvest of tomatoes before the fungus hit but every one of those tomatoes went to a friend who moved a piano to our home for us. A small price to pay to get a piano for my son.
Like most people I love pumpkins and so always plant a lot of them. They do take up a ton of room but I feel they are worth it. I've tried planting them in with corn and beans (that 3 sisters approach to gardening) but stepping on/over pumpkin plants was really difficult when harvesting corn so I don't do that anymore. If you have a way to do that so it works for you please share!
I like to grow big "field" pumpkins for decorating and carving into Jack-o-Lanterns and small "pie" pumpkins for cooking. The small pie pumpkins are a much deeper orange than field pumpkins and have more sugar in them. Gosh knows we humans love sugar.
When cooking with pie pumpkins 1 1/2 cup of cooked pumpkin equals 1 can of pumpkin. That's a good tid bit to know if you want to cook with your homegrown and hopefully organic pumpkins. To cook pumpkin I put the whole pumpkin (minus the stem part) into the oven on a cake pan and bake at @ 400 F for a good half hour (until it starts to lose it's shape and knife slides in real easy). Then I cut open into 4ths and let it cool a bit. Once cooled scoop out the gooey stuff full of seeds. Pull out as much seeds as you can and put gooey stuff in compost. Rinse seeds in a colander, spread on cookie sheet and bake at low heat @ 200 F until crispy. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt (or not) and enjoy your homemade, nutritious treat.
While the seeds are baking remove the soft pumpkin "meat" and blend in a food processor, blender, or by hand so it's mushy like when you buy it in a can. Now your wonderful pumpkin is ready for soups, pies, cookies, breads...whatever you want to put it in. I will share a soup recipe here and if I get a chance I'll add a cookie one later. Pumpkin cookies will definitely be part of our math and snack at school the week of Halloween.
Spicy Pumpkin and Maine Shrimp Soup: (from Quick Simmering Soups)
Only takes 30 minutes start to finish! :)
2 medium onions (organic and from your garden or local farmers market if you can)
2 medium carrots (ditto) Note: Wait until after the soil has cooled before harvesting carrots; I believe it makes them sweeter. I harvested mine early October here in central Maine.
1 TBSP fresh snipped Cilantro
2 tsp fresh grated (or minced) giner root
2 Cloves garlic
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 TBSP butter (I use extra virgin olive oil instead)
1 - 14 oz can veggie broth
1 1/2 cups cooked pumpkin (or 1 15 oz can pumpkin)
1 Cup milk
1 8oz package frozen Maine shrimp (or more)
Plain Low-fat yogurt or sour cream (optional)
Snipped fresh chives
In large saucepan cook sliced onions, carrots, cilantro, gingerroot, garlic, and allspice, covered in the olive oil or butter for 10-12 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor, add 1/2 cup of veggie broth. Cover and blend until nearly smooth.
In same saucepan combine pumpkin, milk, remaining broth. Stir in blended veggie mixture and shrimp. Heat throught. If desired, thread additional cooked shrimp on small skewers (not an easy task to do with small Maine shrimp).
Here's a note on shrimp and why I specified Maine shrimp. If you love shrimp like I do this is going to be tough to read but read it you must. Shrimp that comes from Asian areas such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam etc are do enormous environmental damage to those areas. Mangrove swamps are destroyed to farm raise these shrimp that feed so much of the world. Please read the package of where your shrimp comes from or ask the person behind the fish counter. Most of the shrimp available at grocery stores are from these areas. Avoid them at all costs. There are 2 options that I am aware of. 1st one is to support local food and buy shrimp from Maine:) 2nd choice is to look for shrimp from Louisiana which is harvested in a more sustainable way. But I have to be honest and say that I do wonder about food harvested from the mouth of the notoriously dirty Mississippi River. Anyone know about that?
Now top each serving of soup with a spoonful of yogurt, snipped chives, and optional skewered cooked shrimp.
Serve with warm hearty bread. I'm thinking some Maine's own Shipyard Pumpkin Ale might be good with this too!
Enjoy!
October is definitely pumpkin month. The Boston Globe has had several articles about the shortage of pumpkins in the northeast due to all the wet weather we had this summer. I'm realizing that having a garden on land with a slight incline is a very good thing indeed. Much of my garden did fantastic this summer. And I can only assume it's due to the drainage of my slightly inclined garden. There was some fungal disease but not much more than normal. Except for my entire tomato crop which I lost. I had one harvest of tomatoes before the fungus hit but every one of those tomatoes went to a friend who moved a piano to our home for us. A small price to pay to get a piano for my son.
Like most people I love pumpkins and so always plant a lot of them. They do take up a ton of room but I feel they are worth it. I've tried planting them in with corn and beans (that 3 sisters approach to gardening) but stepping on/over pumpkin plants was really difficult when harvesting corn so I don't do that anymore. If you have a way to do that so it works for you please share!
I like to grow big "field" pumpkins for decorating and carving into Jack-o-Lanterns and small "pie" pumpkins for cooking. The small pie pumpkins are a much deeper orange than field pumpkins and have more sugar in them. Gosh knows we humans love sugar.
When cooking with pie pumpkins 1 1/2 cup of cooked pumpkin equals 1 can of pumpkin. That's a good tid bit to know if you want to cook with your homegrown and hopefully organic pumpkins. To cook pumpkin I put the whole pumpkin (minus the stem part) into the oven on a cake pan and bake at @ 400 F for a good half hour (until it starts to lose it's shape and knife slides in real easy). Then I cut open into 4ths and let it cool a bit. Once cooled scoop out the gooey stuff full of seeds. Pull out as much seeds as you can and put gooey stuff in compost. Rinse seeds in a colander, spread on cookie sheet and bake at low heat @ 200 F until crispy. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt (or not) and enjoy your homemade, nutritious treat.
While the seeds are baking remove the soft pumpkin "meat" and blend in a food processor, blender, or by hand so it's mushy like when you buy it in a can. Now your wonderful pumpkin is ready for soups, pies, cookies, breads...whatever you want to put it in. I will share a soup recipe here and if I get a chance I'll add a cookie one later. Pumpkin cookies will definitely be part of our math and snack at school the week of Halloween.
Spicy Pumpkin and Maine Shrimp Soup: (from Quick Simmering Soups)
Only takes 30 minutes start to finish! :)
2 medium onions (organic and from your garden or local farmers market if you can)
2 medium carrots (ditto) Note: Wait until after the soil has cooled before harvesting carrots; I believe it makes them sweeter. I harvested mine early October here in central Maine.
1 TBSP fresh snipped Cilantro
2 tsp fresh grated (or minced) giner root
2 Cloves garlic
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 TBSP butter (I use extra virgin olive oil instead)
1 - 14 oz can veggie broth
1 1/2 cups cooked pumpkin (or 1 15 oz can pumpkin)
1 Cup milk
1 8oz package frozen Maine shrimp (or more)
Plain Low-fat yogurt or sour cream (optional)
Snipped fresh chives
In large saucepan cook sliced onions, carrots, cilantro, gingerroot, garlic, and allspice, covered in the olive oil or butter for 10-12 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor, add 1/2 cup of veggie broth. Cover and blend until nearly smooth.
In same saucepan combine pumpkin, milk, remaining broth. Stir in blended veggie mixture and shrimp. Heat throught. If desired, thread additional cooked shrimp on small skewers (not an easy task to do with small Maine shrimp).
Here's a note on shrimp and why I specified Maine shrimp. If you love shrimp like I do this is going to be tough to read but read it you must. Shrimp that comes from Asian areas such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam etc are do enormous environmental damage to those areas. Mangrove swamps are destroyed to farm raise these shrimp that feed so much of the world. Please read the package of where your shrimp comes from or ask the person behind the fish counter. Most of the shrimp available at grocery stores are from these areas. Avoid them at all costs. There are 2 options that I am aware of. 1st one is to support local food and buy shrimp from Maine:) 2nd choice is to look for shrimp from Louisiana which is harvested in a more sustainable way. But I have to be honest and say that I do wonder about food harvested from the mouth of the notoriously dirty Mississippi River. Anyone know about that?
Now top each serving of soup with a spoonful of yogurt, snipped chives, and optional skewered cooked shrimp.
Serve with warm hearty bread. I'm thinking some Maine's own Shipyard Pumpkin Ale might be good with this too!
Enjoy!
My small backyard pumpkin patch failed. I have huge vines and many many many flowers yet not one single pumpkin! My girlfriend and I are so disappointed. We hoped they were just going to be late bloomers but our attempt was fruitless. Does anyone know since I bought the pumpkin last year from a supermarket and saved the seeds until this season to plant, could they be sterile? It was an unusually wet summer, but the vines look great. The neighbors had squash that didn't fruit and they have a beautiful trestle that lets the fruit hang. I'm really at a loss. Any thoughts?
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew, How disappointing! Gardening can do that despite our best efforts. But the thing with gardening is that next year you may get the most amazing pumpkins so don't give up.
ReplyDeleteSeveral thing could have happened. It was a wet summer and that could definitely have played a part. The pumpkins could have been planted to late. When did you plant and what area of the country do you live in? Also I wonder about the seeds. I would recommend buying your pumpkin seed from a seed supplier. Your pumpkin could have been a hybrid meaning that even if you did get pumpkin it may not have come true to form. But the fact that your neighbor had squashes that didn't fruit leads me to wonder about the wetness. That did affect pumpkin production all across the northeast this summer. Thanks for posting! Mary