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We welcome you to come enjoy our farm in Clarkston, see where we grow our fruit and
meet the farmers. This is a great way to stay connected to your food
source and see family farming in action! Be the TOP of the Food Chain,
Pick Your Own!
Pumpkin Cooking Tips
- Fall and winter are the harvesting seasons for this tasty
fruit of a trailing vine, another good reason why pumpkin is a
popular vegetable for Halloween and Thanksgiving.
- Choose smaller pumpkins for eating. Sugar pumpkins are usually
labeled by the market for cooking purposes as opposed to those
used for decorating or Jack-o'-lanterns.
- Pumpkin seeds, known as pepitas, are often roasted and eaten as snacks.
Another by-product, pumpkin seed oil, is normally mixed with
other oils for cooking, salad dressings and other uses due to
its strong flavor and color.
- Pumpkin seeds can be toasted on a cookie sheet in the
oven at a low temperature. Be sure to stir them often and watch
for burning. Some prefer to soak the seeds in salt water before
toasting.
- Shelled pumpkin seeds can be used as a less expensive
alternative to pine nuts in recipes.
- Try cooked mashed pumpkin in cake and muffin recipes for added
moisture and texture.
- Higher temperatures cause pumpkin flesh to become stringy. If
you end up with a stringy pumpkin, you can beat the pulp with an
electric mixer on high speed for ten seconds and then switch to
low speed for sixty seconds. The strings should wrap around the
beaters for easy removal.
- Homemade pureed pumpkin for pies is usually much thinner in
texture than canned. To alleviate excess moisture, bake rather
than steam or boil the pumpkin. Mash and drain through
cheesecloth before using in pies.
Fun Facts About The Pumpkin!
- Pumpkins are a member of the Cucurbita family which includes squash and cucumbers.
- Pumpkins contain potassium and Vitamin A.
- Pumpkin flowers are edible.
- The largest pumpkin pie ever made was over five feet in diameter and weighed over 350 pounds. It used 80 pounds of
cooked pumpkin, 36 pounds of sugar, 12 dozen eggs and took six hours to bake.
- In early colonial times, pumpkins wer eused as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.
- Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites.
- The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,140 pounds. (as of 2010)
- The Connecticut field variety is the traditional American pumpkin.
- Pumpkins are 90 percent water.
- Eighty percent of the pumpkin supply in the United States is available in October.
- Native Americans flattened strips of pumpkins, dried them and made mats.
- Native Americans called pumpkins "isqoutm squash."
- Native Americans used pumpkin seeds for food and medicine.
If you don't want to miss out send us an email and we will put you on our contact list.
Otherwise stay tuned to the Facebook site for up dates on harvest.
Contact us for details.
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