Tuesday, November 1, 2016

pumpkins


Do you remember this pumpkin? The vine had grown through the perimeter fence of the big terrace garden and down into the steep bank garden bordering the driveway. The pumpkin's own weight was forcing the fence into the skin, so I harvested right away although I didn't know if a pumpkin could ripen off the vine.

Reporting back: over several weeks spent on a table by a porch window, this one very gradually turned a beautiful orange!

Throughout late Summer and early Autumn, as I walked by the gardens I would sometimes catch a glimpse of bright yellow tucked deep amongst the many shades of foliage and perennial flowers. It's surprising how large a pumpkin can grow without being seen.
At least, seen by me.


I've never grown pumpkins before, and those five little pumpkin seeds have given me so much pleasure and entertainment. It was a very hard summer for all plants, but the pumpkins never gave up. In fact, here are a few pictures of the vines continuing to bloom and set fruit a week ago!





 Recently there was an unfortunate incident in which several goats managed to get into the terrace garden
while I was in the barn mixing up their grain buckets.
Which just seems rude.

In 20 minutes they completely destroyed one pumpkin and tasted several others. It was rather shocking to find so much damage. For example, I'd been admiring the beauty below for weeks. Chompity chomp chomp. You can see my boots on the right, for scale.


While they were there, the goats also ate my first-ever okra plants right down to the ground. Ditto, all the remaining pole beans that I had selected to dry for next year's seed. Someone also tried to nibble a Candy Roaster squash, but gave up. The harder skin of a winter squash must have been too much work for my little vandals!


Last night I harvested the last three pumpkins - two large and one small. I'm hoping they will keep for a while amongst the hay bales as there are already two pumpkins waiting in the kitchen and I only have room to work with one at a time.

I've been baking (or is it roasting?) them in halves or large wedges, smoothing the purée for a few seconds with a stick blender, then freezing in 2-cup packets for winter cooking. The freezer is now full right to the tippety-top (not just with pumpkin!) so I've also been using pumpkin purée to make soups and stews and cake.

Cake!

This is a new version of my tried-and-true cranberry apple mosaic cake, with lots of pumpkin (planned on one cup but my hand slipped!), more spices, and extra flour to adjust for the added moisture.  It came out as a sort of Massachusetts Fruits-cake, with cranberries from the Cape, apples from my favorite nearby orchard, and pumpkin from my own garden. Dense and flavorful, with a texture like a steamed pudding. It's not the cake I was anticipating, but it's quite good. This modified version of the recipe is another "keeper," for sure.

Apples and cranberries and - now - pumpkins!
Welcome to November!
~~~~~

16 comments:

  1. It appears the goats were well aware that you wouldn't be about to share that great-looking cake so they wanted to get their nibbles in while they could.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What came over your goats?! Maybe some Halloween mischief. I know how much it cuts you right to your heart when the thieving marauders take such advantage! My dog is the same way...waits IN THE WINDOW watching us leave, and more than once we've come back in a couple of minutes to find he's already rooted out something special to eat in those two minutes. But your poor pumpkins and squash :( Those little nibble marks are heartbreaking to see, and is that blood on the squash?! I love goats (and dogs), but something like this makes you question their loyalty. I hope you gave them all a time-out and the evil eye for their antics. That little bitty pumpkin is so cute! I'm glad the goaty fiends didn't find that! I want to try pumpkins next year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PS love the photo of the cake with the fake scenic background ;)

      Delete
    2. No bloodshed, happy to say! And the background to the cake is the view out a north-facing window in my parlor -all real, honest :)

      Delete
  3. Quinn - Growing pumkins IS addictive. I still have pumpkins from last summer, and yet I have planted more... ;) Try peeling and grating any damaged pumpkins and then dehydrate them. They dehydrate down to nothing - and are quick to rehydrate. Perfect to use when you have a dearth :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was thinking of trying to dry slices - seems like colonial MA folk might have done that - but it's tricky to find a place where food will stay clean and unbothered while drying. I don't have a dehydrator. Thanks for making me think more about this, Dani. Maybe I'll contact Old Sturbridge Village and ask for info.

      Delete
  4. Pumpkins! I have yet to get any, but I need to fix that soon. I like making my own puree.

    Bad goats! At least they enjoyed the pumpkin at least as much as you did!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you were here, I'd offer one of mine! There's one in the kitchen right now I can barely lift. It's going to be a challenge cooking that one!

      Delete
  5. Pumpkins, pumpkins! You had a banner crop this year. But I can imagine how frustrated you were with the goats (while you were mixing their grain, no less!).

    Your cake looks yummy!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh no. I sure hope your goats enjoyed the bounty :(

    ReplyDelete
  7. that cake looks amazing; going to try that one...I'm one of the crazies that really like fruit cake and this is a kissing cousin, looks like. my sheep always like pumpkins, Christmas trees (no tinsel or dye), watermelons, etc. pumpkins are so easy to grow and such fun...I'm a simple one, eh? lol

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sorry that your goats got to the vegetable patch, but it's an amusing tale. The pumpkins look wonderful and the cake delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The cake looks fantastic! Pumpkin, apple, and cranberry-- all favorites. I'm sorry to hear your goats had a field day in your garden, however, It doesn't take them long to do a lot of damage! At least you saved the pumpkins.

    ReplyDelete
  10. HA! I love those mischievous little devils! Sorry bout the pumpkins - wondering why they didn't totally devour them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. First I thought they just had to "try" each one, but after thinking it over and seeing multiple little bites on EVERY pumpkin, I think it was the typical "musical chairs" approach to goat snacking...one goat starts to nibble then gets pushed off by a bigger/tougher goat, so that goat looks for a smaller goat to push off another pumpkin, and round and round it goes! ;)

      Delete

Thank you for leaving a comment! I enjoy reading each one, and will usually reply either here or on YOUR blog!

Due to spam, Anonymous comments are blocked. I'm hoping to avoid the annoying Word Verification gizmo! If you find you cannot leave a comment, please email me so we can try to sort it out.