Pumpkins, not just for Halloween anymore...

This year was my first attempt to grow little pumpkins, the kind for pies. I used Sugar Pie seeds, and I have been very pleased with the result.They were everywhere, in various sizes but very plentiful, so what to do, what to do...I checked my Ball canning book since I am not an expert and it says pumpkin is not recommended for canning by the FDA because you cannot be sure of the internal temps, so I went with my old stand by, and froze them. Not whole but then this is what this is about =)

 

Wash your pumpkins off and remove the stems. Even with organic, it is wise to wash your items.

 Cut them in quarters with a sharp knife. Watch your fingers, these are a bit firm and you don't want to slip and cut your fingers. Not that I ever do that. Take a spoon and scoop out all the seeds inside and any extra fibrous tissue. Set the seeds aside (That will be another blog) and you have a beautiful pile of orange pumpkin!

I then take a large canning pot or one of your bigger kitchen pots. Put a large metal colander in the pot and fill it with water until it just hits the bottom holes of the colander. Mine fit right down in but if your is sitting a bit above the edge that is ok. You just need to be sure the pumpkin is covered to catch the steam. Put the lid on, or cover them with foil, what ever will keep them contained so they get all the steam.Get your water boiling and then turn it down to simmer. You want steam, not to boil everything dry.(check your water level from time to time) Steam anywhere from 30 -6o minutes (maybe a bit more) depending on the size of the pumpkin. Check after the first 30 minutes, a fork should slide easily through the flesh and skin. I know people also bake these in the oven to do this but I live in Arkansas, land of heat and eternal humidity and any day I don't have to turn my oven on is a good day.

Now to clean off the skin. If you are wise you will let them cool until you can handle them so you don't burn or firebrand your hands and fingers. Not that I have ever done that. It makes them much easier to scoop out and you can get it all rather than letting small chunk go because you just burned your finger prints off. Put it all into a large bowl or container until you get it all scooped out.

 

If it is still warm I wait a bit before I run it in the processor. There is nothing like ripping hot pumpkin shooting out of the feeder into your face to make a good day better. I only add a small amount to the processor, put the lid on and then begin to feed it down the feeder tube one or two chunks at a time, blend until it is all smooth and there you have it. Your own pumpkin for pies, bread, and whatever else you can dream up.

I have several recipes I use and so I measure mine out in recipe amounts, mark the amount on the bag, date it and then freeze them flat so they take up less room. They will be lighter in color than the canned store pumpkin but work just as well in any recipe.

Anytime, you can use your own garden product for your cooking is a good day in my books. 

Happy Gardening & eating all!

Netting, bugs and hand pollination

I live in the very hot, very bug populated south and have a LOT of trouble with squash bugs and vine borers. So to try to keep my squash longer and more bug free I keep a lot of netting on my plants.

If they can do their own thing like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage you are good to go. If they need the bees and pollination not so much. So you either need to let the bees in or you can do it your self. I discovered this last year and if you are new to gardening like I am this will be helpful.

Please bear in mind I am no expert,this is just what I have learned from research and experimentation.

 These pictures show you the female plants and flowers. The female will have the fruit at the back of the flowers. On squash they are very easy to see, because in general they are bigger than some like cantaloupes or cucumbers.You can see the center of the flowers has many little pistils as they are called (remember biology class, this is where I should have paid attention =). This is what needs to be pollinated

Here is a male flower, note the inside is a single little stamen and the back of the flower has nothing but the stem. 

I pull the flower part away from the center stamen and then just rub the pollen all over the center of the female flowers. You can usually see the pollen as it brushes off like dust and it helps me understand how it works for those little bees.You can also do this with a small paint brush and just pull the pollen up the sides and paint the inside of the female flower with it. You can usually do about 2 with one male. I prefer to use the flower itself, I have a lot and I can be sure and get lots of pollen where I want it. As a rule, I don't try this with cucumbers, or melons (although I have once or twice) because there are so many and they are so tiny I would be at it all day. 

This has proved to be very successful for me and I can keep a lot of the nasty bugs out of my squash. 

Happy Gardening all!

Oh the lovely tomato

So this year I have upped my tomato growing, lots more. I had enough to make 2 batches of salsa last year and this year I am want more, more ,more! =) So I have started approximately 42 little pods of plants, each has 3 or so plants in them. It gets really warm here in the summer so I started early.My little mini green house recycled provided some of the starters and the little cardboard thingy's from lowes did the rest.

 And they began to sprout. I love watching things grow.

And low and behold they got big, and very pretty looking! But now it was time to transplant! yeahh!!

So It was time to get everything ready. My mixture of magic to the left. 10-10-10 fertilizer, organic blood meal and bone meal and some Epsom salts. Which isn't really salt but magnesium sulphate, and you can garden OR bath with it. Awesome, a two for one.

So I throw handfuls of each item on the soil all over until it looks like a goodly amount. I don't measure just eye ball it. Then I take my trusty little 3 pronged hook, rake thing a ma jig and really mix it in and get the soil soft and loose at the same time.

This soil was a sandy top soil, 2 bags of garden soil and 2 bags of peet moss with some of our compost mixed in.

I put some of the cages in first. It helps me space them a a bit better, as I am a stuff it until can't take anymore kind of gal, and tomatoes need air and room as they are a bit of a diva and will get diseases if you are not a bit careful.This is the farthest apart I have ever planted my tomatoes and it goes against my stuff em in there grain, but it will be better for them!

 

Then I planted the tomatoes inside each little cage. Until I ran out of cages. Then I eyeballed it with the rest of them and will add new cages as soon as I get some more. There are better support systems out there but for now this will have to do.

 

 And then we water them. From underneath. Very important for tomatoes, as I said, they are a bit of a diva but don't tell them I said that. I want mine to give me lots of food =) You don't want dirt splashing on them, and unless you have sterilized soil, there will be some germs there. They take a while to grow and bring you fruit but when they do it will be worth it. keep them fed, water from time to time, they don't need a lot. I will keep you posted as they grow and what else you can do as they get bigger.

I will start more again in May for my fall planting. Like I said it is warm here and we have on average 240 growing days a year.It makes my gardener heart sing!

Happy gardening all.