Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin

[heavyhitterokra]

Now, the chickens will probably spread it again. That's nice to think about this time of year.

[FrostyTurnip]

My OTCP seeds sprouted!  I hadn’t much left, so they are in pots.  This worked well on winter squash last year.  I am so hopeful to get some this year. 

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

Those Old-Timey cornfield Pumpkins are so incredibly impressive to me still. I have a small one that I harvested last September that I didn't harvest for seed. It's a little bigger than a softball, but smaller than a cantaloupe. I've just been keeping it to see how long I could. It's now July and that thing still looks almost as sound as it did the day I picked it. Those have incredible storage lives, like nothing I've ever seen; which is a good thing because the grasshoppers ate every one of the 45 OTC pumpkin plants that I had growing this season. If I had harvested seed from this one and planted it, I'd have zero for next year.

[macmex]

I still have half a dozen hanging around the house. Every now and then I cook one up and,... yes, they are still good as new! They should be starting to dry out soon though.

[macmex]

I came home from work yesterday to find an Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkin setting at my place at the kitchen table. That's my wife's signal that it's time to have it processed. No doubt, she found it under the couch or hiding somewhere in the living room. ( I stash them where I can find places  ) Anyway, I cut it and was impressed that after 9 months of storage (room temperature) this squash seemed good as new!







It cooked up just fine. We had squash with our supper last night.

[heavyhitterokra]

Those pumpkins are absolutely amazing! No doubt those would keep until harvest time comes in late August or even longer.   Those are always such a happy-making thing to see! 

[chrysanthemum]

That does look beautiful.

I also got a kick out of the communication via pumpkin in your household, macmex. I think that if I found a pumpkin under my couch in July, and I knew that many more were growing in the field for harvest in the next couple of months, I’d probably think it time to have it processed, too. I just loved how you told the story about Jerreth’s leaving it at your spot as a signal for processing.

[amyinowasso]

macmex somewhere I believe I read that you could bake squash and pumpkins whole when they were too hard to cut. Did I make this up or did you once say this? If it's true, how long did you bake it for? Has anybody here tried it?

[chrysanthemum]

I’ve cooked squash and small pumpkins whole before in my crock pot. I’ve never done something really large obviously since it wouldn’t fit. It worked just fine to cook first and cut afterwards. It took hours in a crockpot, of course. I can’t speak to the oven.

[galina]

And here it is growing in our garden in Germany.  I put a large cloche around it to protect from slugs and other mishaps like hail damage as we are now in thunderstorm season and hail is getting more frequent.  

First photo taken from above looking into the neck of the cloche.  The cloche is an old drinking water container from an office water cooler I once found lying by the side of the road.  Hubby used one of his saws to get the bottom cut off neatly and now it has a new life as a cloche.  Second photo is the young squash plant without cloche.  I hope it will double in size by same time next week.  It has only just been planted out.  Those photos look so appetizing, I can't wait and hope, hope, hope this one will do well.  

Attachments:

[macmex]

Here's hoping! What are your projected temperatures?

[macmex]

Amy, I missed your question until just now! Sorry!
Yes, I've seen it done and it seemed to work just fine. I haven't done it myself, probably just out of my own sense of what "ought to be." Still, I've seen people deal with really really hard shelled squash by just poking a hole in the fruit and baking it as is. I can't remember more, but yes, I do believe I wrote about it at some time.

[galina]

Jun 10, 2024 5:54:22 GMT -6 macmex said:

Here's hoping! What are your projected temperatures?

Should be ok for growing c. moschata MacMex.  Waltham Butternut did fine last year as did Tromboncino the year before.  It is warmer than England on average.  With many summer days into the 80s and 90sF and stronger sunshine levels than England.  Here we have UV7s rather than the UV5 levels, which are the maximum sun strength levels in England.  England's maritime climate tends to be more cloudy than here in continental climate.  Most days here we have a few white puffy clouds in the sky, unless there is actual rain.  In England there are days after days of full cloud cover (usually without rain in the very dry area where we lived!) and summer temperatures often don't even get into the 70s.  Here we also have far more rain from short thunderstorms.  Long story short, plants grow faster here. 


Our area in England was really borderline for moschata squashes.  Triffid's area in England, however, is more suited  Hope she will also be successful and I am looking forward to comparing notes.  

[heavyhitterokra]

Wow! I never realized what a difference in UV levels there is between here and Europe. Our UV levels here in Northeastern Oklahoma reach 11 and sometimes 12 in late June near the summer equinox.

[FrostyTurnip]

Jul 30, 2023 12:00:52 GMT -6 amyinowasso said:

macmex somewhere I believe I read that you could bake squash and pumpkins whole when they were too hard to cut. Did I make this up or did you once say this? If it's true, how long did you bake it for? Has anybody here tried it?

I haven’t been around but qualify to add my 2 cents. Medium and large Old Timey Cornfield  Pumpkins:  I put the whole pumpkin on a cookie sheet in the center of the oven and cook at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.  There’s no way to cut the rind.  Baking it softens the rind well and you need not fully cook it. You can bake it sufficiently to soften the rind and do what you need to do.  

After baking, I remove and clean the pulp.  If the flesh is not sufficiently cooked to my desire (as for pumpkin pie filling), I will place it in a pot and heat it up some more, usually no more than 5-10 minutes.  Then, puree, cool and place pre measured portions in ziploc freezer bags.  I put these flat onto a sheet and place in the freezer until solid.  Then I put it in longer term freezer storage.  

FOr newbs:  It is critical that the pumpkin be allowed to cure for a time, usually a couple months where the content converts to sugars and sweeten the meat.  Otherwise, it will have a slight bitter taste.  Baking to remove the rind could render seeds unviable.  

Seed savers will often allow the pumpkin to cure for longer ensuring the health and vigor of the seeds to be saved.  For a healthy pumpkin or one harvested at the right time, 2 mos can be sufficient for saving its seeds.