wyodreamer - we're not in Wyo any more

wyoDreamer said:

Then he took over the plucking just to keep me working and get them all done and over with. lol!

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Men! But, I know it's nice having that chore done!

Yes - totally agree on home canned tomatoes being sooo much better!

Good work on getting the CCX in the freezer! When I part out chicken, I can the backs, necks, heart, gizzard and liver with a cup of cooked rice in quart jars for dog food. They love it!

I was going to try to can the organ meats for the dogs, but they went bad before I got a chance. I need to get my life under control again. I seem to have no time to do anything, but never get anything done.
I made two Pumpkin Pies last night. I baked the pumpkins on the weekend and wanted to get it used before it went bad also. The pies have a strange texture to them from the pumpkin. Not sure if it was that the pumpkin wasn't cooked enough or if it was purely a problem with the pumpkin itself.
I baked 2 pie pumpkins from DH's pumpkin patch. He only planted one type of pumpkin. They were the same size. I cut in half and removed seeds and placed cut side down on a foil covered cookie sheet. Into a 350 oven until tender. One pumpkin seemed nice and tender, but the other was a little tougher to scrape out and fiberous.
I used the immersion blender to mash the pumpkin into a puree.
I used Betty Crocker's recipe for pumpkin pie. When I poured the pie filling into the pie crusts, it looked a little thin, with small fibers of pumpkin. It baked well and tastes great, but the texture, not so good. edible, yes.

The texture is a bummer - but at least it tastes good! I made a pumpkin pie from scratch like that many, many years ago. I was really proud of myself - but Libbys pumpkin (not pie filling) makes a good pie and it's a whole lot easier.

Well at least you made pies! Mine come out of a can.

You guys are lucky, the only pumpkin I can get here is carving pumpkins around Halloween. I grew some of the seeds @Beekissed sent me, but they took ages to get going and by the time they set fruit we had a very early frost that wiped them out Hopefully next year will be better!

sumi said:

You guys are lucky, the only pumpkin I can get here is carving pumpkins around Halloween. I grew some of the seeds @Beekissed sent me, but they took ages to get going and by the time they set fruit we had a very early frost that wiped them out Hopefully next year will be better!

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Sumi, maybe start them indoors earlier and repot until you can get them outside? That may get you a jumpstart on your season. That's how we do anything that takes a long time to mature here, as our growing season is pretty short too. All peppers, maters, etc. are started indoors while there's often still snow on the ground.

I am going to start saving some of the seed from the pumpkins when I cook them. If the pumpkin cooks up good, I will plant some of the seed next summer. If it cooks up stringy, then the chickens will get all of the guts of the pumpkin.

Eating another slice of pie for breakfast, I think I didn't cook the second pumpkin long enough. The taste is really good though.
I do like the Libby Canned Pumpkin for pie also. But if I can grow 4 dozen pumpkins for the price of 2 cans of pie filling, that is alot of chicken snacks for free. My chickens LOVE their pumpkin guts.

wyoDreamer said:

But if I can grow 4 dozen pumpkins for the price of 2 cans of pie filling, that is alot of chicken snacks for free. My chickens LOVE their pumpkin guts.

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Amen, Sistah!!!

My sheep love pumpkins too. I really should grow them some.