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Fall at Our House |
Fall 1998
We have our first watermelon in the refridge now and pumpkins to look forward to right on into fall .... famous last words of summer. Little did I know what the neck pumpkins had in store for me. What an amazing pumpkin, the mighty neck pumpkin! I took on my first one on the first day of fall, as it happened. Early for a pumpkin, even for here, but it's vine had dried up in our August-September drought. I placed it in the oven preparatory to its transformation, and there it baked slowly for 2 1/2 hours while I continued with my yard clean-up. When I returned it was ready for me to perform it's transformation.The neck pumpkin, for those uninitiated, has a long crook neck. It curves up and around about 300 degrees, coming almost full-circle back to the main body of the pumpkin. The neck is about 5" in diameter and is about 2' in length around it's curve. And it is solid pumpkin inside. The entire pumpkin, in fact, is almost solid pumpkin, having only a small seed cavity. It is a truly amazing vegetable. The vines are fearless of lawn mowers and foot traffic and push out in every direction. The leaves are huge -- about 18" across, creating a raised floor about a foot above the ground, shading their neck pumpkins below.
I was not prepared for how much pumpkin I was going to get out of this one pumpkin. After removing the skin and cooking it down, and holding out two quarters of the round section to serve as a winter squash vegetable, I had twenty-two cups of pumpkin ... sitting on my stovetop ... all at one time!! I figure that's the equivalent of eleven cans of pumpkin. That first day, I made two pumpkin pies, twelve more that are ready to pour into pie shells that I froze, two loaves of pumpkin bread, and 3 quart bags of pumpkin -- all from one neck pumpkin.
That was my first one. I have since done two more, making pumpkin soup and perfecting my pumpkin bread recipe. Many thanks to Doug's dad for helping to eat it along the way.
Another garden adventure, more subdued in nature, was my first attempt at making flavored vinegars. I am so very pleased with my results that I look forward to growing more herbs next year to try more vinegar flavoring combinations.
1998 is almost over. Really have to get a move on! We bought some flannel sheets -- come on winter!!
How to make herb vinegar and other herb ideas
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This page added 1 November 1998 - Last updated 12 May 2006