Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin

[heavyhitterokra]

I finally took the time to carry a camera to take a few photos of my 'Gorilla' type Three Sisters planting of field corn, squash/pumpkin, and beans/winter peas.  This planting is about 200' feet long by maybe 20' feet wide.  I had to keep it narrow to leave room for my potatoes.
 These are Hog's Brain Peas, and Whippoorwill Peas, happily using the field corn as support. 

 This photo was taken the day before we got that last heavy rain.  These plants look a lot better today, but it's too muddy to get another photo.

 The beans 'looking' for a trellis.  This is why you have to choose a variety of corn with a strong foundation.

 This is the Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin, living up to its name; smothering out weeds along the outer edge of the cornfield.



 Here is the potato row I squeezed in along side my Three Sisters planting.  We harvested 200 pounds of potatoes from here, before lunch today.  We'll clean up out there better tomorrow, we just got tired of toting potatoes all the way back to the truck which is parked clear over by the timberline because of the mud.

 When you finally hit 'pay dirt' this is what it looks like!  This was a ton of work, but it was the kind of work that makes you feel good, like you've accomplished something worthwhile when you are finally done ... Man, am I tired!

[heavyhitterokra]

I was just brought up that way. My Grandma Fannie was 63-years-old by the time I was born. I was Mom's firstborn child, but Mom was Grandma's 13th kid, so by the time I came along, Grandma had quite a few miles on her. (She was born the first day of Sring, in 1898).

Even though Grandma was no longer a 'Spring chicken' she still kept a garden the size of mine (without a weed in it) into her early-90s. 

All Grandma ever had was a hoe.  She kept her rows 18' inches apart, so a tiller couldn't even fit between them.  I remember one time, my Uncle Jeff was going to lay out her garden on 36" inch centers, so he could bring a garden tiller to help her out.

Grandma threw a fit and ran him off, shaking her cane in the air after him, saying, "Nary a mule ever took more than 9" inches to walk a path between two rows!  I'll not have mine more than twice that!"

Grandma always planted 100 pounds of potatoes each Spring. I only planted 50 pounds this year.

She and I had about the same number of tomato plants (about 100 or a few more) but all in all, she had more variety than I currently do, because she was growing her garden to feed her family. I am growing mine to supply a certain, niche market. I concentrate on tomatoes and okra, mostly. Grandma had less okra and not quite as many tomatoes as I do, but she had enough corn, beans, peas, peppers, squash, cabbage, beets, dill, cucumbers, thornless blackberries, mustard greens, lettuce, turnips, and melons to more than make up for that.

Sometimes, when I'm totally exhausted, from a thing like a potato harvest that was only half the size of what Grandma had every year, I am amazed at her stamina. She would harvest veggies, from sunup until noon, then go inside, cook lunch, and spend the rest of the day canning her harvest before she'd wake up and do the whole thing over again the next day.

Grandma always had more than she could possibly ever eat in the winter. She was very giving too. Not even the mailman could get past her without taking a jar or two of home-canned veggies home.

Because of that, I always leave a little something in the mailbox for our mail carrier here too. I've done it so many times, that she doesn't even question why there are tomatoes in the mailbox anymore.

[macmex]

It seems to be lacking vigor, for some reason. I need to get some pictures of mine, this year. They're a weedy mess and they're over crowded, but they're going crazy. I think they're going to overwhelm my patch of Heidi tomatoes.

[macmex]

Sorry, I didn't first read the first of your posts from yesterday. That's really great that it's starting to grow vigorously. I wouldn't trim it at all, though, after a week or two, you might start harvesting newly set fruit for summer squash. If I recall, they take at least a month to mature after pollination.

[macmex]

Never mind. A couple weeks later the bugs finished off Scarchuks, but Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin continues to grow like crazy. I already picked a couple.

[macmex]

I am chronically overcommitted with everything I try to do and one of the annual (almost annual) things that happens, because of it, is that I run out to the garden to harvest "everything," just before the first hard frost and then find something big, which I missed. It's been 20 days since our first hard frost, and last night it finally went down even lower, to 27 F. Today I took a day off work and managed to get out to the garden to look around. I found these hiding in tall weeds, along the fence.



It's alright, as, first, I believe they were not injured. They had completely hardened off, with the exception of the one on the far right. Secondly, if they should show the typical waterlogged markings in their skin, later today, I can still cook them down and freeze the flesh. This does illustrate one of the things I love about Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin. It is totally abandoned in it's pursuit of reproduction, cranking out the fruit beyond what anyone would expect.

These pumpkins are all in the 6-8 lb range, not real large for this variety, but nothing to sneeze at either!

[macmex]

That's a great line up. Yes, that's some work. I will be hand pollinating in 2020, as I am expecting to receive seed to another Cherokee heirloom pumpkin and want to keep them pure.

[rdback]

Great post George!
I wonder if Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin will produce in Virginia?
Might have to give it a try in 2020 myself.
Thanks for posting about it.

[macmex]

I bet it will do very well in VA. Am processing seed now, so I can send you some fresh seed, though, I've seen this seed remain viable for years.

[macmex]

Judging on the location of Little Mountain, SC, and the fact that Rodger Winn told me that Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin has been grown there since before anyone can remember, I've mentioned to a number of people that I suspect its origins are Cherokee. My theory is that great majority of corns, beans and squash, found in areas that were Cherokee (That's a whole lot of territory.) are, indeed, of Cherokee origin. Anyway, on October 24th I was on Facebook and saw a post by David Shields, who works at the University of South Carolina. He's writing a book on Southern Foods, and specializes in grains and other crops which were the foundation of Southern cuisine. On this day he posted the following picture, which was shared on his timely by a fellow named David Anderson. Anderson apparently works at the EBCI tribal greenhouse . Anderson and his co-workers apparently obtained from Dr. Shields, seed for the Dutch Fork Pumpkin. Here's the photo which was shared:




I commented that it looked a whole lot like the Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin which I had obtained from Rodger Winn, of Little Mountain, SC, and another fellow, I believe named Stephen McComber, responded that those were two names for the same pumpkin!

Look again at the photo of Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin, which I posted at the start of this thread:


Anyway, David Shields is writing a book on Southern foods and food crops. Within a few minutes he sent me the following, which I suspect is part of his work for this upcoming book. You can be sure I'm going to try and get a copy when it comes out!

Complete and unabridged from David Shields:


David Shields Pumpkin—Dutch Fork (Cucurbita moschata v. Dutch Fork)

A tan colored lobed pumpkin grown in the Dutch Fork area around Newberry, South Carolina, since the early 19th century, this ancient vegetable has the diversity of shape, size and color (it sometimes shows a yellow skin) that attests a Native origin. Circumstantial evidence suggests this is the descendent of the Cherokee pumpkin grown in the early 18th century in the Pumpkintown area of Pickens County. The multitudes of pumpkin vines skirting the Oolenoy River there, planted by the Cherokee living at UWharrie village, gave rise to the name. When the Cherokee’s were dispossessed of this land in 1791 as punishment for their alliance with Great Britain during the American Revolution, land speculator Cornelius Keith, settled and named Pumpkintown. He is, perhaps, responsible for the spread of the pumpkin seeds into the midlands of South Carolina, for he was a trader as well as a land shark.

Several features of the pumpkins won favor with settlers in the Dutch Fork. Livestock loved the flavor of the pumpkins, making them a valuable source of winter feed for cattle, hogs, and fowl. They grew plentifully, robustly, and attained a good size making them an ample food source. Reports of as many as 31 pumpkins growing on a single vine (eight to ten pounders) appeared in the Bamberg and Newberry papers in the 1910s and 1920s. The pumpkin hulls were so sturdy they could be stored much of the winter without spoiling. Finally, they had a mild agreeable sweetness that appealed to human taste buds and a texture that lacked the stringiness of some squashes and pumpkins. It proved to be a splendid local variety for pies and baking. “Usually a small, hard-shelled, fine-grained and dry pumpkin makes the best pie,” observed the editor of the Newberry Herald and News on December 11, 1914.

After 1820, South Carolina farmers often purchased vegetable seeds imported by local seed brokers from overseas (cabbages and certain grains) or from the North (garden vegetables). Cheese pumpkins from Long Island and Connecticut field pumpkins made their ways into South Carolina, the latter because of their great size, a feature that would win prizes in fairs and notice in local newspapers. But northern pumpkins, having been shaped for decades to prosper in the colder climates of the North, did not thrive during the tropical heats of Carolina summers. The Dutch Fork Pumpkin and the Seminole Pumpkins of Florida had been molded to grow in hot humid countrysides. Their reliability won them local admirers.

Cooks in the nineteenth century developed preparations using local pumpkins. One became a classic Carolina dish, Pumpkin Chips. This is Mrs. T. W. Boone’s recipe from the 1850s:

Take a good dry pumpkin, cut it up in large pieces, then plane and cut them up very thin and small. Squeeze the juice of one lemon to every pound of the chips, put the juice on the chips, and let them lay one night. Boil the lemon skins until they are soft, and all the bitter out, then cut them in slips. Put one pound of sugar to a pound of the chips. Boil the lemon skins in two waters, take the last water and boil it with the sugar until it makes a syrup, then put the chips and skins with the syrup and boil until crisp. (Stoney Manuscript, South Carolina Historical Society Collection, College of Charleston, circa 1855)

The important keeper of Dutch Fork Pumpkin seed from the 1850s into the Twentieth century was Thomas Watland Holloway (1829-1903) of Pomaria, South Carolina. He improved the pumpkin by selecting seed to give it regular shape (see picture 1 below) and tan coloration. In 1878 he won the first premium at the S. C. State Fair for pumpkins. His preeminence as an agriculturist thereafter was recognized by his becoming the receiver of entries for the State Fair. He distributed his seed regularly in the region from the 1860s onward. A circle of seed savers in the Dutch Fork kept the pumpkin viable into the 21st century. Strains were maintained by the Eleazer, Wicker, Kibler, Fulmer, and Epting families. Seed may be purchased from Sow True Seed of Ashville, NC: Nat Bradford of Sumter, South Carolina, grows the pumpkin as produce along with the Cherokee candy roaster squash (North Georgia variety).

Lagniappe: In the 19th century the leaves of the pumpkin were dried and thrown into a hot fire to drive flies from a an area with its smoke.

Mrs. T. W. Boone, (Stoney Manuscript, South Carolina Historical Society Collection, College of Charleston, circa 1855. “Some Pumpkins,” Newberry Herald (May 19, 1869), 3. “NewBerry at the State Fair,” The Newberry Herald (November 27, 1878), 4. “Various and All About,” Newberry Herald and News (December 11, 1914), 9. “Some Vines and Pumpkins,” Newberry Herald (October 3, 1816), 6. Sow True Seed of Ashville, NC: sowtrueseed.com/products/pumpkin-dutch-fork .

[macmex]

At the bottom of Shield's page is a reference to Sowtrueseed.com, which didn't work for me, when I clicked on it just now. Here's where it was supposed to take you. Notice that this seed company ties the two names together!


Sow True Seed Dutch Fork Pumpkin

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

I could have sworn that I posted our Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin, processing results here, but I see now, that I didn't. Josh and I baked the two OTC Pumpkins that you brought us on hog butchering day and got 18.6 pounds of pumpkin flesh for making pies. The flesh was so sweet that it made our hands sticky to handle it. We were eating it plain, as we processed it, with no seasoning, because it didn't need any. Those were the best tasting, sweetest, pumpkins we've ever processed.

Thank you, for your contribution.

We've made two pies since then; one was OTC Pumpkin pie, the other was a sweet potato pie, made from one of the Beauregards that we harvested. Tonight, we are mixing 50/50 OTC Pumpkin with Beauregard Sweet Potato to make an experimental pie, to see if we like it as well as either of the others we've tasted.

***
I might have found out why I had no pumpkins make it to harvest time this year. As I was walking around the dry creek branch, looking for stranded Bluegill Perch, to restock the cow pond, I found some of my pumpkins about a quarter of a mile downstream of my garden. Only one of them was salvageable and it was only a Jack-be-Little gourd type pumpkin. I had not realized the water came up high enough to sweep my harvest away until this evening when I saw that.

The Mesonet Weather Station in Tahlequah says we've had 65.31" inches of rainfall so far, this year. We've had 11" inches of that within the past 30 days, not counting tonight's storm.  I guess the good news, was that I did catch six, good sized bluegills to stock the new pond.  I'll appreciate those come summer and grasshopper catching time again.

[macmex]

Ron, 
    I know you did post about those pumpkins. We just need to figure out where you posted! Wow! That's quite a flood, to take away your entire crop! Now, it's possible that someone down stream will find a volunteer pumpkin, growing in their cow pasture, and wonder "What's this? Where'd it come from?"

Bon,

   Shape may be a bit affected by conditions. Also, one always need to be aware that it's possible to get a cross. The first year I grew OTCP I also had Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin growing. I ended up with a cross or two, which I weeded out. If there's another squash of the same species within at least 1/2 mile, I would strongly recommend hand pollination. I know you already believe this, but I need to mention it for those who read this thread.

On Maintaining Purity of Squash Varieties

If you have any doubt about the purity of your seed, and it matters to you, let me know and I'll put some seed from this year's crop in with the package I'll be sending you. I only grew the one c. moschata, and I had no off types at all.

As to the "original strain," that's a slippery term. When we lived in Mexico, we observed across rural parts of that country, that they had a similar squash. They all called it Calabaza de Castilla. From one town or region to another, there would be some variation in size and shape, but it was always clearly recognizable as Calabaza de Castilla. I even brought some of its seed to Tahlequah and grew it once or twice, but it was sensitive to day length and only set fruit extremely late in the season. 

My theory is that Native Americans, across most of the continent, had a similar squash. It was a land race. I linked to a NCBI article on land races, though I don't believe they made the main point I'd want to make, in regard to land races, which is that they vary much more than a modern variety. Being a landrace means that there will be a fairly wide range of variation in it. Since the apex of Native American agriculture, most of these land races have been decimated, as they become crossed with other varieties and frequently they are supplanted to the point of going extinct. I'm pretty sure that the "Cherokee pumpkin" has survived in a good many localities, and in many of them, it looks a bit different than in others. This is good. For preservation's sake, the best thing gardeners could do, is to grow out all of the variations, as long as they fit within the parameters of that land race. For the Cherokee pumpkin, I believe the parameters would be oblong/round shape, buff skin with slight ridges and, most importantly plenty of vigor and heat/insect resistance.

   

[heavyhitterokra]

Pie Report:

The 50/50 sweet potato/pumpkin pie turned out great!

The sweet potato pie was a little dry for my liking, the freshly processed pumpkin pie was kind of watery, or perhaps not as tight as one might like it to be. The 50/50 mixture fixed both problems. Plus it got rid of a very small sweet potato I had laying around. I only needed a cup of sweet potato and a cup of pumpkin, to make the mixture, so the small potato was just the right size.

Then I mushed the cooked, baby sweet potato and pumpkin flesh all together with a potato masher, some spices, two eggs, and a can of evaporated milk. It also made for an interesting color combination as the sweet potato bits retained their dark orange color, were as the pumpkin flesh is more of a deep, yellow ochre, or golden hue in color.

It also fixed the browning problem with baking sweet potato pies at 400 degrees. They tend to take on dark brown blotches across the top of the pie that resemble what a hot dog does when you roast it over an open fire.

Mixing the sweet potato 50/50 with fresh pumpkin fixed that for the most part. You still get some blotches, but they are much smaller and kind of add to the patina that a homemade pumpkin pie should have.

I was very pleased with the outcome of that experiment. This will definitely be the mix that I concoct for all my Thanksgiving pumpkin pie making this year.

[macmex]

Here's an image Ron wanted to post here. I removed the company's name to avoid any possible legal problem. Notice the price of a pumpkin pie, mail order, from these folk!