Seminole Pumpkins.....perfect

We are starting to harvest our squash and pumpkins. I know tomatoes are everyone's favorite thing but pumpkins are special around here.
We tried a wide range of new varieties to us as we finally have the space to raise them.
I would like to tell you about the Seminole Pumpkins.

 

 These are a hit here. There are just the two of us but we love baked squash, a huge squash is fun for its size but when it comes to using them they remind me of turkey....you eat it for days, you make soup and you freeze bits of it and the chickens get some when you just cannot eat anymore.

These pumpkins are just the right size for us. They do not take long to bake and 1/2 of one is a great serving for one person. They have an excellent cavity for stuffing although that is still in the future. The flesh is a deep rich orange and flavorful but not sweet. They are wonderful sprinkled with cinnamon and a bit of butter or simply spiced with a bit of Paprika and Brown sugar.

The plant itself is prolific, even in less than desirable conditions. They produced lots of the small pumpkins in the heat and humidity of this past summer but they continued to set fruit when it turned extremely dry. The vines are not tall or bushy but spread all over the place. They did not seem to attract the squash bugs or any other bugs for that matter and the vines did not show any sign of disease.

They have a very tough rind...I found this out when I went to bake the first one. I was going to peel it and cube it to roast with apple and potatoes. It did not work, at least with the style of peeler I have. That was when I made the decision to bake the halves.

This is the information from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

(C. moschata) 95 days. [Cultivated in Florida by the Native Americans in the 1500s.] Keeps up to 1 year at room temperature! Small fruits are sweeter than Butternut and have firm, deep-orange flesh. Large vines bear bell-shaped buff-colored fruits averaging 6 in. in diameter. Resistant to vine borers. Excellent downy mildew resistance; a good choice for hot, humid, disease-prone areas. Give it ample water and room to roam. Also good as a summer squash when picked young.


There was an excellent article about them on the Slow Food USA site.

We harvested 25 of the Seminoles two days ago and they are curing for winter storage. We suspect they will keep well. There are probably 30 more of them still on the vine, not quite ready to pick. The vine is still setting fruit.

Today I am going to stuff one with a rice, pepper, tomato and chicken carnitas mixture for supper. This pumpkin will be in our gardens for years to come. Ralph has been debating planting them along the slope of ground by the road. We love the low maintenance of this variety. I hope you find this old Pumpkin something you want to try in your gardening efforts.

Now we are finally getting to the point where most of our meals are all home grown ingredients. One thing we have noticed is how much less trash we have when we use our own goods. Growing your own food has so many advantages and the reduction of plastic packaging is one of them.

Take care and God Bless you with a bountiful fall harvest.