The Great Pumpkin Quest

~ By Gardening Committee Members ~

With Autumn Celebrations falling due and all the decorations we put together to mark Halloween and Thanksgiving's arrival our ACL Aletha thought it would be a good time to explore the Pumpkin Family. So what's to explore one might think being used to what is available in our local grocery stores; markets or gardens? Well the kicker was that we had to go on a Quest of sorts to seek out a Pumpkin that was new to us and that grew outside these areas and share what we discovered. We hope you will find this information as enlightening as we did and are forever changed when it comes to regarding Pumpkins in general :)

Aletha

So here I am taking another trip to find a pumpkin that is new to me and outside my area. I hope you enjoy this trip with me to Australia, the land down under, where I found a pumpkin called Jarrahdale.

What an interesting name that is and it is said they are rare in the United States so I will have to visit the nurseries to see what they have. From what I was reading they are one of the most beautiful, unusual, and tastiest of the superb eating pumpkins and weigh from 12 to 20 lbs; they are a blue grey with heavy deep ribs; very hard-fleshed and keep well in storage. This is an Heirloom Pumpkin that can be obtained at health-food shops but I am also going to see if I can get some seeds.

Light: full-sun
Habit: spreading
Soil pH: slightly-acidic-to-neutral-pH6.5-7
Soil moisture: moist
Foliage color: medium-green

Once you have tried one the large, orange, woolly variety will become a thing of the past in your life.

Sue

This has, apparently, been a good year for British pumpkins with a record crop. This fruit is used more for Halloween than in the kitchen, and its use as a decoration has increased exponentially in recent years.

I'm always fascinated by the varieties and shapes of pumpkins, marrows and squashes and the interesting names. Quite how one is supposed to cook most of these remains a mystery! Few of the varieties make it to the supermarket. Most need to be home grown, something rarely successful in the absence of a greenhouse. I came across this list of some new names (for me) beyond the Butternut squash and the weird one that is supposed to have insides like spaghetti.

Baby Bear – a very good cooking variety. Sweet and firm-fleshed, these user-friendly small fruit can be baked stuffed with cheese and cream for a single serving. Their flesh is good for both savory and sweet dishes.

Crown Prince – is steel blue-grey with a golden interior. Keeps well and holds its shape and is ideal for roasting and for vegetarian kebabs.

Delicata – is a small and white with green stripes and pale yellow flesh tasting of sweet potato. Keeps well and has a distinctive nutty flavor; cooks to a dry texture and is good combined with cream and plenty of seasoning.

Small Sugar – medium-sized fruit with sweet, bright orange flesh. Its high sugar content means it caramelizes beautifully when roasted and is a superb pie-filler.

Sweet Dumpling – small and very attractive densely-fleshed white and green squash. Sweet, almost chest-nutty taste when cooked.

Sweet Mama – another highly ornamental orange fruit perfect for a single serving just cut off a "lid" and bake whole.

Julie

I haven't heard of the Kent (Jap) Pumpkin before which has ribbed grey-green mottled skin and a nutty flavored deep yellow flesh; its great mashed, roasted or steamed.

Pumpkin is an excellent source of beta carotene. It also contains dietary fiber, potassium, and vitamins C and E. Look for pumpkins with a hard, thick skin that are heavy for their size. Once cut, remove seeds, cover and store in the fridge for up to one week.

Kythera Ann

I found I was hard pressed to find a variety I wasn't already familiar with but with perseverance I did. Lakota Pumpkin also known as Lakota Squash is a member of Cucurbita maxima, and a winter squash. It grows 18-25 inches in height and only takes 80-90 days to go from seed planting to maturity. The skin is multi colored and very pretty; reminiscent of an Indian blanket.

The shape of this pumpkin is usually like that of a squat pear, though some rounder forms have been documented. The size of these pumpkins can really vary, from 4 to 11 pounds (2 to 5 kg) but averaging seven pounds and grow to about eight inches (20cm) tall. It is a good baking squash and fabulous for fall decorating.

This pumpkin was once prized by the Lakota Sioux (Native Americans of the Dakotas) for its mild nutty, sweet, deep orange flesh. The Lakota cultivation of this pumpkin pre-dates white settlement.

One of the neater things I found out about this particular vine is that the flowers are especially attractive to bees, butterflies and birds. It also needs moderate watering. Harvesting tip: Pick before frost when stem cracks, skin hardens and color is tan.

Diane

Here is an unusual pumpkin and the one in the picture to your left is sitting in front of my garage.

Red Warty Thing originated in the West Indies and is a fairly new variety that is oh so cool! As you can see its name truly fits. It has a hard warty skin that is bright red in color with a good quality flesh too and stores extremely well but you should use caution when cutting into it.

Lenekathinka

In Denmark we make Candied Pumpkin that is really yummy and we only use the big Pumpkin in front of our door to decorate.

Pumpkin is a gourd like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae (which also includes gourds). It is a common name of or can refer to cultivars of any one of the species Cucurbita pepo, cucurbit mixta, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata.

Cucurbita is a genus in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae first cultivated in the Americas and now used in many parts of the world. It includes species grown for their fruit and edible seeds (the squashes, pumpkins and marrows, and the chilacayote, as well as some species grown only as gourds.

They have bicollateral vascular bundles. Many North and Central American species are visited by specialist pollinators in the aphid group Eucerini, especially the genera Peponapis and Xenoglossa, and these bees can be very important for fruit set. Cucurbita species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Cabbage Moth, Hypercompe indecisa and Tump Moth Ccucurbitin is found in Cucurbita seeds.

Several species of Cucurbita are native to North America, including C. foetidissima (finger-leaved gourd), C. digitata (calabazilla), and C. palmata (coyote melon). All of these plants produce gourds and form large, fleshy, tuber-like roots.

Gardnbee

Pumpkin is a fruit I have seldom given a lot of thought to, just using certain types for different reasons especially for End of Harvest Decorating. So when asked to explore the Pumpkin Family and find a Pumpkin that was new to me and outside my area to discuss I was a bit stumped. Since Orange Pumpkin is considered, by definition, to be a form of Winter Squash this information helped me to search out one that I was unfamiliar with.

The one I found that truly intrigued me is called Fairy Tale Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) a French heirloom noted for its firm texture, sweet taste, deep orange skin, squat shape, rich buttery flavor, great for baking and can be frozen for future use when cooked successfully.

Fruits range around 10 to 12 inches in diameter on 10 foot vines and weigh approximately 12 to 15 pounds when mature after a growing period of from 110 to 120 days. High in fiber and potassium one cup of Pumpkin also contains more than 300% of the daily allowance recommendation for Vitamin A intake and is also very rich in the antioxidant Beta-Carotene.

This Pumpkin variety is a definite must for its own patch next year; now all I have to do is find out where I can obtain some seeds :) Oh and by the way the Faery child didn't come with the pumpkin, but once planted one never knows :)

         

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