Saturday, August 28, 2010

Who Ordered The Soup.....?

This is my first foray into edible pumpkins, as opposed to pointless great show off ones.

They are "New England Pie", supposedly a good culinary variety, and this is the crop from two plants, which germinated and grew easily, but seemed very susceptible to powdery mildew. More so than other types growing nearby.


The fruits could have done with ripening on the vine a bit longer, but as the plants are completely dead, and in view of the current sub-aquatic weather, I decided to get them in.....Luckily, the cottage has walls, and therefore windowsill about 18" thick!
Apparently, according to young Mr. Buckland, (a boy doing a man's job if ever there was) it's important to leave a short "handle" of vine at the top of the stalk, rather than cutting the stalk off flush. This then dies off and seals the stem, and helps prevent rotting during storage.

Once they have ripened sufficiently, like all squashes & pumpkins they will keep best hung in a net, in a cool dry place, and can be stored right up until Christmas if necessary.

6 Comments:

Blogger Hazel said...

If you run out of appetite for the zillienth portion of pumpkin soup, you could use the pumpkins to make 'mock lemon curd' - it doesn't keep for ages (a couple of months), but (on the plus side) it doesn't taste like bloody pumpkins.

Recipe on my blog, if you want to give it a whirl.

9:19 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

my my you have been a busy boy

9:18 am  
Blogger Matron said...

I go for edible and taste every time. So many British pumpkins are watery and insipid.

4:27 pm  
Blogger Nutty Gnome said...

I really must get round to growing pumpkins!
I popped in fromWoody's blog and I've really enjoyed reading your posts - kept me amused too :)

4:34 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

Wow don't these look fabulous on your window ledge. My pumpkins usually keep until about March.

So lovely to find you again - missed you posting.

Off to catch up with all your posts on here

9:03 am  
Blogger She Who Digs said...

Great to see you hava a plot once again. How things have changed since we 'met' in 2006! wishing you a bountiful 2011, best wishes, SWD

1:12 pm  

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