In addition to the pumpkins we planted we had one grow as a “volunteer” -as my dad would call it -out of our compost pile. We let it go and mowed around it for the summer. We had a tomato plant do something similar in the crack of our front porch. We let that go as well. I figure any plant that just voluntarily decides to grow and make food for me with no encouragement on my part all- can at least be left unmolested to do it’s thing. At any rate this is the pumpkin it produced- completely for free and with out any effort on our part other than picking it-I might add. It wasn’t quite ripe for Halloween but it made it in time for Thanksgiving just in time of pie. We cooked it and canned it. We got 22 pints- 2 full canner loads out of this pumpkin. Plenty for pie… and pancakes, scones, cake, bread, soup, and pasta sauce. Clint will now show you how to kill and dress a pumpkin.
First sneak up on the unsuspecting pumpkin. You should probably wash it first but don’t worry it won’t guess your intentions- pumpkins are kind of slow on the uptake.
Have a bowl ready to put the guts in.
Hold the pumpkin firmly by the stem and make your attack.
You will have to plunge the knife deeply and repeatedly to fully dismember it.
Once you have fully dismembered it you can split it open for easier cleaning.
Scoop out the guts. This will include the seeds. Separate the seeds in a colander. Save some to plant next year- since the “volunteer” is clearly not a hybrid or it wouldn’t have grown in the first place and then toast the rest. There is very little to go to waste on a pumpkin – that should make you feel better about killing it.
Warning gutting a pumpkin is a messy business- it isn’t for sissies.
Some folks bake it. We usually boil it.
When it is soft scoop the flesh away from the rind and put it – hot directly into canning jars. I can them in a pressure cooker at 15 pounds for 40 minutes. That my friends is how to kill, clean, dress, and preserve a pumpkin.
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