Late September till sometime towards the end of October, my mind wanders to pumpkins. Pie pumpkins to be exact are what catch my attention. I see huge pumpkins for carving and I’ll grab one for the obligatory jack-o-lantern & not think about them again. However, every time I see a stack of those, I’ll start to wonder if I’ll be able to find any pie pumpkins at a reasonable price.
On a good year, buying is not so important as I’ll have pie pumpkins from my own garden. Last year was an example of a pathetic year. I was late getting my pumpkins out & then a long hot dry summer hit. The result was that I got ONE pie pumpkin & lot of material for my compost pile. Be late if you must planting tomatoes, you’ll be able to buy tomatoes all summer long. But some years you can’t find pie pumpkins in the stores or farmer markets so if you’re late about planting your pie pumpkins, you’ll do without. That is a terrible thing. Fresh pumpkin is wonderful.
The bounty from this year’s garden isn’t huge, but at least there are a few pumpkins. Only pie pumpkins get planted in my garden! Easy enough to buy a pumpkin suitable for Halloween & I wouldn’t have any use for all the others I would have. In case you don’t realize it, the jack-a-lantern pumpkin is much too watery & tasteless to make a very good pie or anything else. I realize it’s a small crop but considering everything that has gone on this year so the garden was woefully neglected AND had a drought to contend with also, I’m pleased.
Right now, I’m just washing them & admiring them. Later, I’ll get around to roasting them. THEN it’ll be time to decide what to do with that wonderful pumpkin puree!
Tags: pie pumpkins, pumpkins