Prepping Pumpkins

Have you noticed that there hasn't been a can of Libby's or Stokely's pumpkin on the shelves of your favorite market since last Christmas?  Usually nobody notices, unless you love eating pumpkin goodies throughout the year like me.  Originally I thought it was a regional issue and asked a Walmart stock person and he told me due to last year's growing season not being up to par, the pumpkin crop was diminished and they ran out during the end of the Holiday season.  I even asked a Walmart stock person in a huge city and they said the same thing.  I looked online and I found cans costing upwards to $10!  Wow! 

How thrilled I was when we stopped at a farm stand near Columbus, Ohio to see cooking pumpkins stacked in a large box.  No jack-a-laterns, just small cooking pumpkins.  Evidently they ripen earlier at that farm or were planted earlier for the fall season.  I bought three just to try it out.  They were $2.75 per pumpkin.  I also found a cute little recipe booklet which offered printed directions as to how to prep these orange beauties.  A no brainer, really, just wanted to be sure...

There are two ways to cook them.  Boil or bake.  I choose bake since I didn't want to fool with tough skins or lose precious vitamins to boiling water.  So, I cut one pumpkin in two, removed the stem, and put the halves face down in a pan.  The directions say to cook for 40 minutes, but it took about an hour before mine were evenly done. 

I scrapped off the fiberous flesh and made sure I didn't go through the soft skin and get any tough pieces.  I put mine in a large blender, turned the indicator on high and let it work for about a minute. 

It tastes and looks squashy as does organic pumpkin  in the can.  Not as dark orange as the Libby's nor as dense and contains a bit more water, but SO healthy with no preservatives, no chemicals from the can (the white interiors of cans contain that BPH that leaches into foods and can be found in our bodies) and it costs a little less.  I got almost 4 cups!

I froze my pumpkin and will thaw it out to see how it tastes in November.  The next processed pumpkin I will use immediately for maybe a pie, a loaf of bread or some cookies!   Oh, and I saved the seeds.  Hopefully I will be successful unlike this year at growing pumpkins.  I didn't notice many honey bees on our farm this year which really worries me.  We have a new cell tower nearby which I learned 'confuses' the bees.   One can self pollinate and I may have to try that next year.  I got several blooms this year and one tiny fruit that died.  Anyway, I am a happy girl now that I have my pumpkins!