PUMPKINS ARE KING

By Penn Parmenter:

Pumpkins are King in the Parmenter mountain gardens. We love everything about them and have grown them for over 25 years. They are a particularly generous plant, capable of providing hundreds of pounds of easily storable, nutrient-dense, delicious food.  Pumpkins are versatile and can be used in more ways than I can list here. 

For a nation that celebrates pumpkins by carving faces in them and then smashing them in the streets, there is still a pumpkin for everyone.  There are fast pumpkins, bush pumpkins, huge pumpkins, vining pumpkins, tiny pumpkins, white pumpkins, and pumpkins with warts.   No matter what varieties you grow, the yield will delight you.  Voluptuous plants with stunning flowers that make any garden look good, they can also feed the world.

We have grown a 90-day full-sized pumpkin called Northern Bush for over 20 years.  It has always produced and now that we save the seeds, it produces more, faster, and is beginning to ripen on the vine.  Up here in the mountains we have to bring pumpkins in before the first hard freeze to finish ripening indoors.  We cure our winter squash for at least 2 weeks after they are ripe to toughen up the skin.  The sugars will concentrate after harvesting making them sweeter than ever.

Besides being fun to grow, pumpkins are incredibly useful.  Pumpkins and their seeds are Top Dogs in the nutritional world; they are healing agents, cancer fighters, prostate protectors, eyesight enhancers, menopause minders, skin beautifiers, free-radical chasers, cholesterol-reducers, age delayers, blood-pressure correctors, mood lifters, sleep promoters, muscle restorers, and heart heroes.

You get all this and more from pumpkin’s piles of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals including: Vitamins A, C and E, riboflavin, potassium, copper, magnesium, manganese, thiamin, B-6, folate, pantothenic acid, niacin, iron, phosphorous, carotenoids including beta-carotene, tryptophan, potassium, phytosterols, zinc, protein, and fiber, fiber, fiber.  One cup is only 49 calories!

Pumpkins are satisfying and delicious, and you can even eat the serving dish! 

My mother used to serve a rich, delicious stew roasted right inside a cleaned out, raw pumpkin.  After baking, you scoop spoonfuls of cooked pumpkin off its walls while dishing the stew up.  So delicious and clever! Everyone was always amazed.

While the whole family likes pumpkin pie, we love roasted pumpkin, especially if it has delicious meat sitting on it.  It’s good in so many ways; it’s a winter squash after all and can be eaten like one.  Any squash can be a jack-o-lantern but a pumpkin can be anything. 

Winter squash need minimal care to store. Yes, a root cellar or basement is optimal but they keep pretty well in any cool, dry, dark place with good ventilation.  A good storage pumpkin optimizes the harvest. What good is it if it turns to mush in a month?  I want that food all winter long.  Knowing they are keeping perfectly inside their shell gives me peace of mind when bringing in the harvest. 

Cord and I grew pumpkins for fun at first but later began to understand their wonderful qualities. Of course, when you move to the mountains you will be told you cannot grow pumpkins - or corn or tomatoes – without a greenhouse.  You may also be told that greenhouses won’t work either. Cord would say, “Miss Penn doesn’t like to be told ‘no’”  We never believed the naysayers and just kept learning and building our gardens, greenhouses, and our food security.  Pumpkins have become a very important part of our harvest, seed bank, and bellies. 

We continue to learn about the Curcurbita family. My farmer friend grows pumpkins for her pigs and chickens. They devour them for their delicious sweet flavor and crunchy seeds, but the curcurbitin is also reported to have natural de-worming properties.  She finds that interesting enough to use it as feed. Since pumpkins are chock-full of vitamins and minerals, and the fiber aids in healthy digestion, and she can make pie, it’s a good fit.

Winter squash plants make great compost for either the green or brown layer.  Vining squash is a team member of the Three Sisters, rambling under the corn to mulch and shade the soil, retaining moisture.  You can plant a pumpkin at the edge of tree shade to keep the roots moist longer and watch it grow out towards the sun.

After my pumpkins are completely ripened and have cured for about 2 weeks, I start using them in meals.  We eat the seed of non-pollinated fruits as they will not come true to variety.  (Hand-pollination is required to get true seed when growing multiple varieties of squash.)  Eating pumpkin seeds raw gives the best health benefits but roasted in a little garlic and chipotle powders or tossed in tamari is a hard-to-beat snack. 

When I do save seed from hand-pollinated pumpkins, I often cut up several at once.  I cut the pumpkins in half, load up the pans sky high, and roast them at 375–400° until I can easily stab them with something.  They will be puffy in the oven, then deflate as they cool.  We eat these for dinner but when there is extra I scrape out the flesh out into a bowl and puree it in my food processor to store.  I pack it in mason jars, date and label it, and freeze it for use all winter to make pies, breads, or muffins. 

But I really prefer one pumpkin at a time; I cut it open, roast the seeds, and roast the flesh in a little olive oil.  My family of men loves it when I roast a chicken or pork roast right on top of cut up pumpkin and onions.  Sigh. I want some right now.

Penn & Cord Parmenter garden and grow food and seed near Westcliffe. Both are regional high-altitude gardening instructors and the founders of Smart Greenhouses LLC, a sustainable greenhouse design company, and Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds.You can see their work at www.pennandcordsgarden.com