Squash, Pumpkins, and Squmpkins

I have been trying to get a post like this on my blog for probably about two weeks. Unfortunately things have been very hectic and I haven't had the chance to write it. I hope to correct that now.

I will start with the pictures from 19 September. I harvested a pumpkin and squmpkin then and planned to make a blog post, but that didn't happen.

Our zucchinis have done very well this year. We have harvested plenty for ourselves, to give away, and even sold some by the road. We didn't sell very many, but it was probably enough to cover the costs of seeds. We used a good bit during the course of the summer and now I have some in the freezer for the winter. When I free zucchini, I greatly in advance and then package it in 2 cup amounts in bags. 2 cups is the right amount for zucchini bread and also works well for many of the other recipes in which I include squash, such as soups, spaghetti sauces, and Mexican.

I don't know how well you can see it, but this picture shows a very large squash. We let this one grow large on purpose with the plan of harvesting seeds for next year. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that these seeds will actually produce zucchini, but we've decided to give it a shot. I harvested seeds by cutting it open and removing the best ones I could find. I then washed them off and spread them on newspaper to dry. I probably also could have taken the meat of the zucchini and grated and frozen it, but I decided not to.

These squmpkins are proof of how uncertain it is to collect seeds from squash for planting. They were grown from seeds that we brought home from one of my mother's squashes on our US trip last year. I had to plant about 25 seeds to get these two plants.They initially grew like a squash in one place, but later the one of them began to send out feelers like a pumpkin.

 

 

 

It was quite exciting to see what the white fruits would turn out like. We expected an oddly shaped white squash like the one that we think we got the seeds from. Instead, we appear to have gotten a white pumpkin. As you can see, when cut open, it shows stringy insides like a pumpkin. I baked it in two cut halves with the open side down, like I usually do for pumpkin. The resulting cooked pumpkin tasted like pumpkin usually does. I strained some of the extra moisture from the meat then puréed it with the staff blender. After packaging in 2 cup portions, I froze it. 

 

This type of pumpkin translates to “giant pumpkin.” They did not end up as large as I expected. I have not yet tried cutting or baking any of these. We have one that is ripe and two nice not ripe ones and one that is a little odd.

 

 

 

This is the only ripe one we have of the more classic American halloween pumpkin. My understanding from the seed packet is that they should still have a good meat for pies and other food uses. We have several in varying sizes at different points in maturity.

 

 

 

 

Because we have begun getting frost at night, I have had to harvest all the various squashes and pumpkins to prevent them from being destroyed. All are now packed in a clear tarp on the picnic table that I can open on sunny days. I hope at least some of them will ripen so I can harvest them. We also promised a white one and the ripe halloween-style one pictured above to my mother-in-law. She cans them in a Danish style that is sorta like a pickle. These two are the best in size for her to handle and use.

 

Busy Baker bex

Our weather is nasty today, so DH said I didn't have to feed Daisy. Yesterday he put a big bale of hay down into the woods down in the end of the pasture. They have plenty of shelter down there and with the wind and rain, he doubts she'd want to come up and eat anyway.

I'm very relieved not to have to feed because I slept horribly again last night. It's all the pain that keeps waking me up and all the painkillers that certainly aren't helping either. They help with the pain, but they make my system work weird. I was up for a little while, right after DH left for work, but then I slept again. I got up a little after nine. I'm amazed the girls let me sleep that long. I think Shawnee is growing up enough that she starting to be able to hold it longer.

I've had yeast in the refrigerator all week waiting for me to have the energy to bake. I just put three loaves of bread in the oven. I figure that if I was going to go through all that work I might as well do it properly and make plenty. I used the yeast is normally the right amount for four loves. Our bread form is very large so that got a little bit more than half the dough. The rest are split in half and made into two smaller loaves that I just put flat on the pan. DH prefers bread baked in the form, but his parents prefer the bread baked on the pan. His mother says that she thinks the stuff on the pan holds longer. My theory is that that's because the entire loaf gets coated with egg as opposed to only the top like when you do it in a loaf pan.

DH really enjoys having homemade bread on the weekends. His parents usually buy bread from the bakery, but it's very expensive. Last time I gave them a loaf they praised it very highly so I think that she liked mine better than the bakery bread. I like being able to help them and is great to have something to be proud of.

I probably won't get blogged as much over the weekend. I hope everyone has a great weekend, wherever they are.