Pumpkins

We grow two varieties of pie pumpkins, Baby Bear and Snackjack. Snackjack is unusual because of its hull-less seeds which make them easier to eat. All pumpkin seed are edible when toasted or baked.

Cooking Tips

Try carefully cutting your pumpkin in half and scooping out the seeds, placing it face down on an greased cookie sheet, and baking it for about forty minutes at 350 degrees. After removing it from the oven and letting it cool down a bit, it should be easy to scoop the pumpkin's flesh out of the shell with a sturdy spoon. Alternately, you can try steaming or boiling pumpkin chunks. Now it is ready to be added to any number of recipes; pumpkin soup, North African stew, a hot curry, tempura, muffins, bread, scones, or of course, pumpkin pie. To toast pumpkin seeds, wash them in a sieve immediately after removing them from the pumpkin and clean off the pulp as much as possible. Then toss the seeds in a tablespoon of canola oil and put them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle on salt, as well as any spices or seasonings you might like, and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes for crispy seeds, or at 250 degrees for an hour for chewy ones. Check on them in the middle of baking to stir, if necessary.

Storage Tips

Pumpkins will store in a cool, dark part of the kitchen for several weeks. Once cut open, they should be kept in the refrigerator for no more than a week or so.

Nutrition

Pumpkins have more vitamin A than any other vegetable, as well as iron, potassium, and phosphorous. The seeds are also high in many vitamins and minerals, as well as important omega acids.

History

Pumpkins were first cultivated around nine thousand years ago in Central America, but played their most important role in the food culture of Native Americans in modern day New England. Pumpkin probably really was served at the first Thanksgiving, because it was a staple crop to the first people around Plymouth Rock. Their association with Halloween actually comes from an old Irish myth, which in the Old World was acted out by the carving of turnips, rutabagas, or potatoes; Irish immigrants in the United States soon found hollow pumpkins much preferable for this rite.