Its taken me a while to work up my pumpkins I grew this year, but I got-er done today. I baked my pumpkins whole in my ovens. I have a smaller wall oven and then the oven on my range is a bit bigger. The pumpkins fit perfect between the two not one more would have fit. 375 degrees till they were soft enough to push a knife into them.
Small oven...
Bigger oven....
Then take them out let them cool, cut them open it will help them cool off faster. Be careful they are really hot. I turned on the ceiling fan and pointed a standing floor fan toward them. Once they are cool enough to handle scrape out the seeds, you can wash the seeds and roast them for snacking on. Then I used my food processor to get the consistency I wanted my pumpkin to be. I was going to can my pumpkin puree in my pressure canner ( I know the FDA says not a good idea but well I was going to anyway using canning directions from a 1972 Kerr Canning book, seems it was still considered okay at that point.) Not sure when the good old (cough, cough) FDA decided it wasn't okay...... sorry I am rambling.... What I wound up doing was putting it in jars and freezing it as I had recently gained some room in my freezer. Had I had more jars than would fit in my freezer, I would have pressure canned it.
15 Pints later I was done... whew this was messy lol and a lot of work! It will be so worth it when I am making yummy goodies with this pumpkin!
Yep my helper was right there to supervise the whole process! :O)
I saved the stems, popped them off before I put the pumpkins in the oven. Why you ask, well you can use them to make the neatest fall decor pumpkins out of fabric. My stems are not real long, I didn't know about using them when I cut my pumpkins. But now that I know I will cut them a bit longer next year.
You can make these fabric pumpkins like this
Here is the link to directions for making these lovely fabric pumpkins if you would like to make some!
A side note: Be careful how many pumpkins you bake to work up. LOL It takes time and its a messy job with a lot of clean up, so be careful to not bite off more than you can chew, erm process. I wouldn't do this many again at once I don't think :O).
14 comments:
that fabric pumpkin is really cute. :) so is that sweet keeper.
the end result of all your hard work is heart warming and a beautiful shade of autumn.
good work.
I bet your glad that's over....good to have it done tho. Your helper was wore out.
That is a lot of pumpkin processing
I had to read up on why the no pressure canning. It was fascinating and makes sense. Not sure why it was ok though in 1972 but apparently it was 1989 they changed it. Oh well. Frozen is great too. I'll have to make sure we grow some pumpkins next year. Being here in Texas, do you have a favorite variety? Don't need one for pumpkin carving, want food grade ones. :-)
How cool that you grew and processed your own pumpkins! I did too -- in fact, I made pumpkin bars from last fall's pumpkin. I put mine in 2 cup plastic containers. I have Zuccinni in the freezer now. Nice to have it on hand throughout the year.
Wow! You've been busy!!! Although messy I bet it was a fun operation. And I love the fabric pumpkin with stem. That's lovely are for sure!!!!
Processing pumpkins is definitely a long, messy job... but you have a lot to show for it! You're going to have some really tasty baked goods not too far down the road. :)
*YUMMY* This looks awesome! I'll bet your kitchen smelled heavenly with those in the oven....
And the fabric punkin' is ADORABLE! I love how you "recycled" the stems! :)
So neat that you cooked them whole! I never thought of that!
I had never heard of cooking a pumpkin whole. I'm not even sure I know how to cook pumpkin unless it comes out of a can. LOL
How nice to have the pumpkin preserved for the winter. My sister just brought me a couple that I need to put in the freezer. I love using the real stem for the cloth pumpkin. What a great idea!
I was so enjoying the sight of all those pumpkins turning into canned yummy pumkin for the futre...when up pops that gorgeous fabric pumpkin. Canning and fabric, my kind of post. Thanks!
Oh, wow, I didn't know you could bake 'em whole. I always cut them in half first (not so easy). I imagine this would work for squashes, too?
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