Hello all :) I was so excited to try it this year. I decided to try and grow pumpkins this year. Starting out in spring with the packet of seeds I had bought. I planted them in the middle of my garden among the sweet corn, and potatoes. I swiftly found they grow a lot more than I imagined, and proceeded to overrun everything! XD



The pumpkin starts out as a Male and Female flower. If memory serves me right the female flowers are the ones that produce pumpkins, and can be identified by the little bulb on the their stem under the flower

Here is a male flower up and in bloom

And a flower actively being pollinated by a honey bee =D


After the honey bee picks up the pollen, he will carry it over to a Female flower, where the flower will be pollinated. Afterword the flower will drop off, and a pumpkin will start to grow :)

Here you can see where the flower dropped off the end, which makes the bottom of the pumpkin


The pumpkin grows pretty fast, and I was much surprised how big some of mine have got


One of largest pumpkins (in thumbnail as a ripe pumpkin) Here it is still growing


After awhile of growing. The pumpkins will start to turn orange. I found that sometimes it can seem really slow, and it took me awhile to figure exactly when a Pumpkin was totally ripe :P


The largest pumpkin I pulled out of my garden. Weighing in at 36 pounds! =0


For the meantime to I found some time and things to make them into. I sat them on the porch to cure


I forgot to mention. These are "Autumn gold" Pumpkins, which are good for baking, or carving =D




PART TWO:


Now comes the fun part! =D I will now show the steps I took to process the pumpkin down to delicious baked goods :)

Choosing a pumpkin from off the porch. I carried it inside to the kitchen


The next step was to cut it in half vertically


I set my oven to preheat to 400 degrees, and while it was coming up to temperature. I scooped and scrapped out the insides. You can save the seeds for later, but I didn't this time


Lining a baking sheet with nonstick paper. I laid both halves cut side down, with skin up on the sheets. Placing them in the oven for 45 mins to a hour or more. Till the outside got tender till it is easy to stick a fork through it. It can take a really long time for large pumpkins

While those are baking. I have some time to play with the kitten =D. She is getting so big now :)


Taking the done pumpkins out of oven. You can see all my fork marks where I was checking them XD. The skin gets nice and golden, and a fork runs through it easy.


Leaving them to cool for awhile. I took a metal spoon, slipping it under the skin. I carefully peeled the skin off. It was still hot because I was impatient XD


I then and used the spoon to take scoops out of the pumpkin and placed them into a food processor. Blending them up, and adding more as I went. Once full. I then emptied the puree into a strainer over a bowl. To drain out all the water. And there was a lot!


Continuing the process to I had both halves done. I proportioned them out, and placed them into bags to be frozen for use later. Keeping some aside for a pie ;) The puree is now ready to be made into filling, and all sorts of other pumpkin baked goods =D

While I did not get pics of making the pie. My mom made it =D

Pie hot and fresh out of the oven. Straight from the garden :)