Pumpkins and other Miscellaney from the Farm

This morning we are 'testing' the furnace.....it is working.  The living room was 68° so we decided to turn off the AC on the system.

I do love this time of year.  The only thing that would make it perfect is for it to rain!  Still nothing predicted.  I may have to till the garden in a cloud of dust.

Speaking of the garden, I keep finding snacked on and rotting pumpkins so a few days ago I decided to harvest a few.  I found some that looked the perfect color and some that should have been left on the vine.  At least, I got all I could possibly need for the winter.



I let them ripen for a few days and then decided to process one, not the best colored one:



I  scrubbed it good and diced it into chunks; tossed into my turkey roaster with some water and cooked until tender.  I ran it through the Victorio strainer using the pumpkin cone.  Bits of softened skin came through so I decided to scoop the flesh off before straining.  I used to just process in the Cuisinart.  From this medium sized one, I got slightly over 4 lbs. of  pumpkin.  I thought it was a little coarse.  Maybe because of the early harvesting ?   Anyway,  I made a pie and it was very tasty, not as fine textures as 'store bought' but certainly very good.



I stored  the others in the milk parlor and they will last all winter into spring.

The vine is still growing with no let up in sight.  I have no idea what will ripen if anything by frost which is just around the corner (l0/20).

The same is true of the sweet potatoes....tremendous vines....sometimes not a good sign; all vines and no potatoes.

I am happy to report that DH finally got around to hauling off all my chain saw piles....now we need to rake the dead leaves left behind.  I ventured up the side of the cellar once again and chopping down an elm sapling.  I will treat the stump with diesel this morning.

There is nothing left in the garden but drying bean pods for seeds; still producing peppers and the aforementioned sweet potatoes and the odd clump of garlic seedling here and there.

DH saw this in the road when he went to get  the mail,

 

I am thinking juvenile rat snake?

I did not dispatch it.

We are seeing lots of garden spiders in webs.  I don't mind them unless I drive into one when mowing which I did.

Got company coming Monday.  Sis and BIL who haven't been down in two years.  They will just stay a couple of days....got to get back to the mini horses.

Weird Squash - Test Pie

We got a scattered heavy frost this morning and are supposed to get down to 28° soon.

After milking yesterday morning, DH and I loaded up the sweet potatoes and took them to the MIlk Parlor.  I sill have to clean and sort them and then will bring them to the house unless I can get the hallway in the barn up to desired temperature.  We use an oil filled heater out there.

We also brought the squash in and temporarily stored them in the west chicken house.  It is insulated with bales of straw in the ceiling but will still be too cold so I will move them to the barn also.

I was so curious about what kind of flesh I would get from the strange shaped ones.....they were supposed to be Butternut seeds and not saved seeds.  Some were quite normal but large and others almost round.

Here is the one I tested.



I used a ruler to give some idea of the size,




I wanted to try the Victorio strainer with it.  I have never used it on pumpkin.  If I am satisfied with the results, it saves two steps:  Scraping the flesh from the skins after cooking and pureeing the remains .


I cut the squash into smaller pieces, added some water, covered and baked at 400 until tender.  It didn't take very long,  under an hour.

Then I ran it through the strainer using the pumpkin cone.  It went very quickly.  The only negative and it may not be too bad is some very tiny pieces of skin also came through.  I am curious about that.

I removed the shield that drains the pulp into the bowl before I took the picture.


The real test is now in the oven.....I made a pie this morning using the recipe from Joy of  Cooking.  The pie made too much for my 9 inch dish.  I will bake the leftover in a custard cup.  Next time I would simply reduce the amount of cream by 1/2 cup or use another recipe......or try to find my 10-inch pie plate!

Lorraine, I also spread some mincemeat over a part to test.  I hope I marked the edge of the crust enough that I can tell because I want to test it first.

I got three one-pound packages with one cup left over from this squash......this means I have enough squash to make approximately 50 pies!  I need to give some away but I am probably the only person I know who would use this method to make a pie (or 50 pies).

Will report back  later.