Wish I could say my pumpkin patch did great this year. Wish I was carving pumpkins for Halloween, smack dab in the garden. But I can’t and I won’t be. The bugs in my neighborhood are celebrating, instead. I swear I’m gonna start using screen in my garden. Living against a beautiful backdrop of nature does not ensure a flourishing garden—quite the opposite. It provides cover for the bugs that are stalking and munching your plants.
If only pumpkins weren’t so tasty, with beautiful blooms and wide, flat, yummy leaves. But they are. Now, if you’ve got pumpkins in your garden, I know exactly what to do with them. Make pumpkin pie!
Me? I’ll be using the store-bought pumpkins from you’re my porch step. Don’t bother tossing them into the compost pile. Instead, cook them! Roast the seeds, bake the flesh and okay, I guess you can compost the skin.
Basically it’s better to start with a fresh pumpkin. Who knows who’s been scurrying around your porch at night, in and out of your carved pumpkin. Full directions can be found here on my website, or head on over to Pick Your Own for a complete how-to when it comes to making homemade pumpkin pie.
The kids and I like to steam ours stove top, but Pick Your Own has instructions for microwave and oven, too. Because we didn’t have a steamer big enough, I put a metal colander inside one of my biggest pots, cut the pumpkin into large pieces, then covered it with tin foil. Twenty minutes later—cooked, squishy pumpkin! It peels off the skin with little or no effort, then you place it into a big mixing bowl and add sugar (we used organic, purchased from our grocer), spices, evaporated milk and eggs. The recipe is enough for two pies, unless they’re both deep dish.
Tip: use a hand blender or mixer. We didn’t, and ended up with cooked egg whites “floating” in our pies. While it didn’t affect the taste, it did detract from the appearance so be forewarned—in case you’re gifting your pies. We did cut corners a bit and used the store-bought prepared pie pastry, covering the edges with foil so they didn’t burn, which means we can’t officially say it’s from scratch—but pretty close. And really, shouldn’t we let those who have perfected the business of pastry get credit? (But if you’re a diehard scratch cook, go for it.)
We then placed them in the oven for about an hour and they were delicious!
As to next year’s crop, keep in mind you’ll have to plant in June if you want pumpkins by Halloween, as it takes 3-4 months to reach maturity, and beware the rainy season. In addition to a tasty treat for crickets and hoppers, pumpkins are susceptible to fungus and mold. For more details on growing pumpkins in Florida, go to UF’s solutions for your life. It’s a wonderful resource for real life gardening.
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