Last year I saved some pumpkin seeds from an organic culinary pumpkin I bought. I carefully dried some and when spring came, I just couldn’t wait to germinate them. I probably did so far too soon because by mid-July, the garden was already looking like this:
The Garden, mid July
I had created a monster. Those leaves proceeded to climb up the wall, across the patio and, for a while, were a major point of contempt between Chris and I. He hacked them almost back to nothing twice, but this was no ordinary pumpkin plant. This was a man-eating pumpkin plant.
Pumpkin plant mid-takeover
Somehow, though, only two pumpkins came to fruition. And they were MASSIVE ‘culinary’ pumpkins. I mean huuuge!
Huge pumpkin
I think one of my mistakes here was that I planted / harvested the pumpkins too soon. The stems had gone woody but the insides were slightly green and sort of spongy.
Gutting the pumpkins
Nevertheless, the pumpkins were seeded and gutted – my favourite part of the process, actually; gutting pumpkins is very therapeutic.
Next I chopped them up and steamed them in the biggest pot I had. It still took me a good couple of hours, though, just because of the size and quantity of pumpkin! I would recommend using smaller pumpkins because they’re sweeter and you don’t have to add as much sugar to them.
Boiling pumpkins to make purée
I also saved the seeds to rinse and roast – yuuummmm!
Pumpkin seeds
Finally, when the pumpkin was cooked through enough and mushy, I let it cool for a few minutes and then filleted it from the skin (if that makes sense).
The cooked pumpkin
A quick zap in the food processor and I had my very own pumpkin glop purée! All but three cups of it went straight into the freezer and the rest was spiced according to this recipe (which I’ve made several times now and is delicious).
Puréed pumkin with spices
By this point I had run out of patience so I rolled out a store-bought pastry (gasp!) and chucked it in the oven.
Pumpkin pie in the oven
I had enough for two pies. And boy were they ever good!
The finished pumpkin pie - yummm!
Seriously, it’s so rewarding making pumpkin pie from a *real* pumpkin instead of that crap you buy in cans.
A little late for Thanksgiving but better than never, right?
