Stored sunshine

There is nothing better, 

in the middle of a cold winter,

than chopping into a perfect pumpkin.

One you planted and nurtured through the summer,

as it soaked up the warm summer sun.

Picked at its best and stored away.

Roast it till it's soft and sweet.

Mash it with some home-grown potatoes from your store.

Add an egg from the girls, and lashings of flour.

Knead it, roll it, and cut into little dumplings.

Drop these into boiling water

and cook them for few short minutes

till they float to the surface.

Scoop them out and serve them in a delicious sauce.

Tonight it was a cream based sauce 

with one rasher of free range bacon, 

lots of garlic (yep, home grown), 

a handful of spinach (because all meals deserve a bit of green) 

and topped off with a sprinkling of parmesan.

Make lots, allow them to air-dry for a few hours. 

Dust them with more flour 

and package them up for the freezer.

Next time I might try a golden butter and sage sauce.

Now that must be the true definition of 

solar power!

Stored in summer, used in winter

 to charge our batteries!

Intimate photos

I need advice

Firstly, I went to my favourite nursery today.

Just sayin!

I am living in curcubit hell.

The pumpkins have taken over the garden,

and are literally, climbing the walls.

This is ONE plant...and the photo

does not do it justice.

It covers a space of about 4 x 4 metres.

It has just started to set fruit,

after its astonishing rampage.

I thought it was a trombocini..

...but clearly it isn't.

Definitely, a Jap pumpkin.

Maybe a dwarf, Jap.

I think I planted some of those seeds.

If it is, the 'dwarf' must refer to the fruit,

not the vine!

Then there is this peachy fellow.

Lousy photo...but you get the idea.

I planted some Queensland Blues.

This is the right shape for a Queenie...

but the wrong colour.

These, I know, are pottimaron.

I grew these last year and loved them.

A small pumpkin with chestnut coloured flesh.

Very tasty - and they stored well.

I am thinking that maybe there has been 

a bit of hanky-panky in the pumpkin patch.

Could the pottimaron 

have consorted with 

the Queensland blue 

to create the offspring

pictured above?

You gotta love cucurbit

See the pumpkin in the middle?
It is about a metre off the ground. 

Gardening can be frustrating and disappointing sometimes.  Things die, or they do magnificently then the weather or some sort of pest intervenes to rob you of the pleasure of admiring and/or eating what you have grown.  This is why I love growing cucurbits...squashes, pumpkins, zucchini and the like.

 They are such generous plants, filling up every empty space they find, 

climbing up when they run out of space.  

See the corn in the photo above...overtaken!

I love their big leaves that droop in the heat

then bounce back when it cools down and they get a drink.

Then of course there is the fruit.

It almost grows before your eyes.

Pumpkins keep for months and are such a versatile veggie.

Best of all, you can shove a few seeds in the ground 

and when they transform the garden into a jungle 

people walking past comment on how good your veggie patch 

looks and what a fabulous gardener you are.

I am so smitten.

Sex in the patch

Is there anything better, on a mild, sunny summer's day

than a bit of hanky panky in the patch?

Rude Barb looks right at home among the rhubarb.

 The pumpkins use the bees to carry their

love tokens without having to deal with the 

wet patch afterwards.

Fecund?  I would say so!  

These lettuce seeds took one day (yes only one day!) to sprout!

This is only their third day of life... precocious little buggers.

The poor little carrot babies have to shield their eyes from the carryings on 

of their older, seedy relatives in the bed next door.

Yes, it is good that we are broad-minded and

COSMOSpolitan here!

Off to have a cold shower now!

Catch you soon.

Sunshiny

 

The early bird...

gets the worm.

In this case, the early pumpkins....

started as seeds in the little greenhouse

and planted out 

are way ahead.

Potimaron...pumpkins

 These little fellas, were planted

in the garden as seeds once the soil warmed.

 

I have planted fewer pumpkins this year. 

But looking at photos of last year's harvest, maybe I will

poke a few more seeds in somewhere.

I am having a go at some watermelons and cantaloups too.

Great pumpkin challenge - recipe #5

Recipe #5 - P-p-pumpkin on P-p-pizza

Dice and roast pumpkin before adding to your pizza...and then add whatever other toppings you fancy.

Tonight's version had tomato paste, pumpkin, pancetta (well, bacon really but it doesn't start with p), pinenuts, Philedelphia Cheese (cream cheese, cubed) and parsley thyme.

I feel like I am doing a segment for Sesame Street:

This idea for pumpkin is brought to you 

by the Letter P

and the colour purple orange.

Great pumpkin challenge - recipe #3

A number of people have left links in their comments to pumpkin recipes so I have added a gadget to the sidebar with links to these.

If you have a favourite pumpkin recipe let me know so I can add it.

This way we will all have access to lots of recipes for pumpkins.

Recipe #3 - Spiced pumpkin muffins

The muffins are a 'Traditional, tempting, tried and true' recipe from the Country Women's Association

Ingredients

125 g softened butter

1/4 cup castor sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup golden syrup

1 cup of pumpkin puree

1/2 cup chopped dates

1/2 cup mixed peel

2 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
Thoroughly blend the butter and sugar.
Beat in eggs, golden syrup and pumpkin puree.
Mix in fruit.
Sift dried ingredients together and fold into the mixture.
Spoon mixture into a lightly greased muffin pan.
Bake for 20 - 35 minutes.

Recipe makes 12 muffins.

 They make a delicious rustic muffin that is more spicy than pumpkiny ...but worth the effort

The Great Pumpkin Challenge

I was gloating over the booty from the pumpkin patch
and making The Cook admire them and we
began to list the ways we could use the pumpkins.

Now I know that some people who read this blog probably think pumpkins are only fit to feed to animals or to hollow out for Halloween...we would like to try to change your mind.

So we have 
The Great Pumpkin Challenge
We will bring you twenty, that's right folks, 
T-W-E-N-T-Y recipes for this versatile veggie. 

Actually, I set the challenge for The Cook but she says I have to help...

it isn't enough to just grow beautiful veggies apparently!

Then Cook pointed out that she has had a bit of head start.

Pumpkin recipe # 1  Roast Pumpkin and Green Bean Salad
has already appeared on the blog.





Pumpkin Recipe #2 - Roast Pumpkin Risotto 
Recipe Source: allrecipes.com.au

For this recipe I used one of the heirloom pottimaron.  It had lovely firm, bright orange flesh.
In the past I have used butternut squash with equal success...I just wanted an excuse to cut one of the pottimaron.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2kg pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2.5cm cubes

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cups Arborio rice

2 teaspoons rosemary leaves

4 cups chicken stock

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Method

• Toss pumpkin cubes in olive oil and bake on a tray until tender and just browning.

• Prepare the stock and have it hot on the stove.
• Saute onion and rosemary leaves in a large saucepan.
• Add rice and cook for 4 minutes...stirring all the time.
• Add half of the baked pumpkin (it will break down and colour the risotto).

• Add stock one ladle at a time, stirring all the while.
• Continue until the rice is cooked and creamy.
• Add parmesan
• Season to taste
• Add half of remaining pumpkin and gently stir through.
• Serve on a layer of rocket/arugula and sprinkle with remaining pumpkin cubes.

I added dry roasted pinenuts for a nutty crunch

Variations

• Add chopped bacon with the onions at the start.
• Stir through dry roasted pine nuts at the end.
• Add chopped spinach close to the end of cooking.
• Add half a cup of peas or corn kernels
• If you aren't too worried about your arteries stir through some butter with the parmesan...it makes the risotto extra creamy.

A good risotto, I think, should be creamy but able to hold a bit of height when served...it should gently slump...not run all over the plate.


After you have cooked, eaten and cleaned up, 
don't forget to recycle the pips and peel.