With a little help I managed to get my prize winning giant pumpkin indoors and avoiding the nasty weather outside. But what on earth am I going to do with 191 pounds of it?
I had to use a garden spade to break it open, If that didn't work I was headed for the garden shed looking for a power saw!
Well, as you might expect I had an audience as I was cutting it up.
Of course I managed to cut my finger whilst doing so! Life is so much more difficult without the use of one of your thumbs, don't you think?
So I managed to cut up and de-seed only a fraction of it. Into an oven to cook it and hopefully drive off as much of the water as I could. This is a very wet, sloppy pumpkin with not much taste I'm afraid. About as much taste as a marrow and the same watery consistency.
So after sieving pounds and pounds of it, I am leaving it for at least 24 hours to drain away some of the liquid. There is just going to be tons and tons of it, I will give some away to neighbours, freeze some, make soup, make chutney, pumpkin pie.. but alas, quite a bit will be given to my lovely compost worms!!
Well, it is not all bad news. This pumpkin was pollinated from a male Queensland Blue squash flower. So this means that with a little luck and a following wind.. Matron may have bred an interesting hybrid for next year. How do you like the sound of
'Matron's Queensland Giant'? A giant pumpkin crossed with one of the most tasty and best textured pumpkin? A giant and fantastic tasting pumpkin? who knows. I am planning to set up a
'Just Giving' page and sell these seeds to raise money for my favourite charity
Hounds for Heroes. Keep watching this space!
6 Comments:
What a great idea Matron...the 'just giving' and raising money for Hounds.
I shall look forward to the future progeny of these two fine pumpkins.
That's a lot of pumpkin! Obviously just bred for weight and not flavour/texture.
Do you remember the seeds I bought at Audley End? One packet was a French heirloom squash which I grew on the 3 sisters mound. We now have 2 Galeux d'Eysines pumpkins, each weighing 25lb :-)
Great idea for raising money for H4H - I'll have to try those!
C xx
Oh Matron, I was wondering all along, how you were making out with your pumpkin.
I'm glad that you are finding ways to use it all up.
Soups and fritters and pies and smoothies and jams will help it to go a long way.
I think the seeds will do well next year as well.
Leo can have some cooked pumpkin with his food as well, he seems quite ready to enjoy some.
Oh no! What a shame. Hopefully the next generation pumpkins will be more tasty! At least the compost will enjoy it :-)
I'm not sure that I'd know what to do with all the flesh from a giant pumpkin but I applaud the idea of selling the seeds as a fund raiser. I also like the sound of the Queensland Blue squash, a bit more suitable size wise for me!
That's a lot of pumpkin processing. Have you tried pumpkin butter? It's like apple butter. I used 4 cups of pumpkin to make a double recipe last weekend.
I can't wait to try the new Matron's Giant! The inside of the Queensland you posted a while back looks wonderful. I'm still waiting to cut mine open.
It may be part of our Thanksgiving holiday coming up.
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