|
Post by Dabbit on Jul 13, 2007 4:54:45 GMT -5
A work pal of my wife a few weeks back gave us a small pumpkin plant! My wife planted it next to our Carrot patch - both of us thinking it wouldn't be that big. We were wrong! The plant has literally taken over half the garden length of where it is planted and actually gone around our tomato plant pot which happened to be in the way, and is heading right for our house!!!
It has some lovely flowers on and we do have some little pumpkins on it too (much like the courgette - so I guess they are related).
Now the thing is when do you pick them? I assume they aren't frost hardy so how do you store them? And finally apart from cutting faces in them on 31st October - what on earth can you do with them - I've heard of pumpkin pie.
And finally are they nice and tasty?
|
|
|
Post by Mark on Jul 13, 2007 10:13:40 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Dabbit on Jul 13, 2007 11:23:15 GMT -5
Thanks Mark
|
|
|
Post by Dabbit on Oct 28, 2007 6:31:51 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Dabbit on Oct 28, 2007 10:18:10 GMT -5
Right having tasted it for the first time I can say we enjoyed it with the exception of one family member who reckoned it had too much spice. However I reckon without the spice it would have not been so good.
|
|
|
Post by Alex on Oct 29, 2007 15:48:38 GMT -5
You reckon right. Pumpkin has no real flavor. But is very versatile. We here in the colonies make bread, cake, pies and soup using the funny looking things. Not to mention Jack O Lanterns!
|
|
|
Post by Mark on Oct 29, 2007 16:45:41 GMT -5
The cat is right, Dabbit, pumpkins are quite versatile. But cats being carnivores, I'm surprised he has an opinion on what is technically a 'fruit', LOL. Did you know that pumpkins date back many centuries? The name originated with the Greek word for "large melon" which is "pepon." "Pepon" was nasalized by the French into "pompon." The English changed "pompon" to "Pumpion." Shakespeare referred to the "pumpion" in his Merry Wives of Windsor. American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin." The "pumpkin" is referred to in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater and Cinderella. This is a photo of the world's largest pumpkin on record, by the way - it weighs in at 1,689 pounds. That would make a very large pie indeed! (However, the largest pumpkin pie ever made to date was over five feet in diameter and weighed over 350 pounds. It used 80 pounds of cooked pumpkin, 36 pounds of sugar, 12 dozen eggs and took six hours to bake.)
|
|
|
Post by Dabbit on Oct 30, 2007 2:47:00 GMT -5
Wow thats some pumpkin Mark... I moaned at de-seeding and skinning my one
|
|
|
Post by Mark on Oct 30, 2007 21:02:32 GMT -5
Oh, and I forgot - a word of advice, when you're de-seeding your pumpkins, never, but never, never, never put the innards of the pumpkin down your sink's disposal - it will really 'gum up' the works - it will take a lot of nasty untangling. Just toss it into the rubbish bin with the other garbage.
|
|
|
Post by Dabbit on Oct 31, 2007 2:06:05 GMT -5
We don't have sink disposals here Mark - just bins
|
|
|
Post by Maria on Oct 31, 2007 15:45:00 GMT -5
But you can take the pumpkin seeds and roast them in the oven. After the seeds have been cleaned, put them in a bowl with a little Olive oil. Stir them and then spread them on a cookie sheet and sprinkle salt on the seeds. Bake them in oven, on a low heat, until the seeds are dry. Yummy
|
|
|
Post by Mark on Oct 31, 2007 15:59:02 GMT -5
But eat too much and you might turn into a 'Great Pumpkin', LOL
|
|
|
Post by Dabbit on Nov 1, 2007 8:03:01 GMT -5
Well my waist is nearly as big as that picture... LOL
|
|
|
Post by Mark on Nov 1, 2007 18:23:36 GMT -5
Didn't look that large in the photo of yourself in Mallorca. ;D
|
|
|
Post by Dabbit on Nov 2, 2007 9:47:00 GMT -5
Camera trickery - LOL (no only joking)
|
|
|
Post by Mark on Nov 2, 2007 13:54:39 GMT -5
Right, a wide-angle lens turned sideways, aye? ;D
|
|
|
Post by Dabbit on Nov 3, 2007 5:21:32 GMT -5
Well said mark I wouldn't have thought that one up..
|
|
|
Post by Mark on Nov 3, 2007 11:43:44 GMT -5
Mind you, Dabbit, you might appear to be twelve feet tall... ;D
|
|
|
Post by Dabbit on Nov 3, 2007 12:46:47 GMT -5
Well I'm half that now Mark - so doubling the length and reducing the wasit line... nah I'll remain fat LOL
|
|
|
Post by Mark on Nov 6, 2007 10:02:06 GMT -5
If it were only that easy, LOL.
|
|