Preserving Pumpkin

[lcertuche]

Last year I scored some pumpkins for $1 a piece. I only got two and I really regretted I didn't get more. I ended up cooking them in my giant electric roaster (kind of like a huge crock pot). Just used a hammer and my big ole butcher knife to slice through the center. I cooked until a fork could pierce the skin.

I always roast the seeds separately on a cookie sheet.

I ended up with 13 or 14 quart bags of pumpkin puree. A real bargain for $2 considering canned pumpkin was over a buck a piece in the stores.

This year I'm thinking I will dehydrate some pumpkin if I can get some more bargains. It takes up less room and re-hydrates nicely.

Now my favorite ways to eat pumpkin: pies, muffins, ravioli, enchiladas, smoothies, soup... Oh, what am I saying, any recipe using pumpkin is my favorite!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I love pumpkin too... especially some pumpkin soup! DH brought 6 nice big ones home from work yesterday. Some of them have been carved up and are deteriorating a bit....pigs/chickens will get those. Not sure what I'll do with the others...maybe just bake them and put the innerds in the freezer.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I just made roasted pumpkin seeds yesterday. They're gone now! My husband loves them! The rest was carved and will be fed to the pigs once it starts going bad.

 

[lcertuche]

We love the seeds too, especially the kids. It's surprising how many seeds one pumpkin can have.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I tossed one that was in poor condition to the pigsters this morning - they loved it!

 

[lcertuche]

Yeah, it's too bad that pumpkin seeds are not really suppose to be a dewormer. At least they are full of nutrition as are the pumpkin flesh and skin. I love being able to throw my frozen, raw tomatoes out to my chickens. Nothing really goes to waste on a farm.

 

[Mini Horses]

Pumpkins are loaded with good nutrition, esp the seeds. I throw excess to all the animals and walking thru the "old" pig pen yesterday, I find about 50 volunteer tomato plants!! Crap! not gonna be able to use this late in year but I sure WANT to dig & pot! Have some good feed pumpkin seeds but so wet this Spring that nothing got planted. Not even a lonely tomato!!

Hoping we all have a better Spring next year. I think many had a garden bust this year and we sure need to re-supply the jars. So miss the fresh veggies to pick -- and toss to the animals.

Hoping to pick up some "excess/rejects" from some local pumpkin fields in next month. Several around. Gotta get out there & talk to the owners.

 

[lcertuche]

I love volunteer plants. I got squash one year so maybe next spring you'll get some pumpkin. If they in the pig pen then you know they are fertilized. I imagine you could save the tomato plants. Just pot them up and put in a sunny window. They would be pretty leggy but just bury them trench style for lots of roots when you did set them out. If they are crowded in a pot of plain dirt maybe they wouldn't grow to fast. Maybe build a hoop house out of fence panels and plastic. Put bales of hay around them with a floating cover under the hoop house. That's how some do up north. Anyway, maybe to much trouble for a maybe survival rate. Fun thinking about it though. If its in your critter pen they will probably eat the plants anyway.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Nothing really goes to waste on a farm.

That's the motto at our house!

@Mini Horses - I say go for it with at least a couple of those 'mater plants. Worth a try!

 

[Beekissed]

Yeah, it's too bad that pumpkin seeds are not really suppose to be a dewormer. At least they are full of nutrition as are the pumpkin flesh and skin. I love being able to throw my frozen, raw tomatoes out to my chickens. Nothing really goes to waste on a farm.

But they are a dewormer...

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00436-015-4416-0?no-access=true

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/a...xima-pumpkin-seeds-carica-papaya-papaya-seeds

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123756886101100

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3103934/




From the study, it is observed that Z. zerumbet has shown better activity than C. maxima at a higher concentration (100 mg/ml) compared to standard Albendazole (100 mg/ml). The comparison of death time for both the plants in different concentrations with respect to standard (Albendazole).