Queensland Blue Pumpkin

I still have a few Winter squash keeping well in storage. On checking this Queensland Blue Pumpkin I noticed that a little spot at the base had started to rot. Time to use this one. There are many blue skinned pumpkins down under. Our very own Crown Prince is a close relative, and comes a close second in the taste stakes! My parents used to live in New Zealand in the 1950s and discovered this Antipodean Winter Squash for themselves. Consequently growing this variety was one of my earliest memories as a child helping on the allotment. Nowadays, not that easy to come by in the UK. If you see it I can most highly recommend growing it. It really needs a brighter, drier, hotter Summer than we get here but it does OK.

It has the most amazing firm, orange flesh. It is sweet and has very little moisture in it.

Curcurbits are notorious cross-pollinators, but I seem to be doing OK so far. This is the 3rd year I have grown these from saving my own seed.

I just baked them in the oven, took the flesh from the skins, then made a sieved puree of the flesh. Eating this roast pumpkin straight from the roasting pan is heavenly! I can't eat this all at once, so I have several portions of sieved pumpkin in the freezer just for pumpkin pie!