Preserving Pumpkin

[OzarkCountryGirl]

I didn't plant any pumpkins/winter squash last year, but the year before I grew Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck, and they kept in the cool room (back bedroom) from Oct until this past winter when the last one was finally eaten. So a full year.

This year I'm planting more Penn Dutch as well as a few other heirloom winter varieties, and have young plants ready and waiting to go into the garden as soon as it's dry enough.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I love pumpkin too... especially some pumpkin soup! DH brought 6 nice big ones home from work yesterday. Some of them have been carved up and are deteriorating a bit....pigs/chickens will get those. Not sure what I'll do with the others...maybe just bake them and put the innerds in the freezer.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I just made roasted pumpkin seeds yesterday. They're gone now! My husband loves them! The rest was carved and will be fed to the pigs once it starts going bad.

 

[lcertuche]

We love the seeds too, especially the kids. It's surprising how many seeds one pumpkin can have.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I tossed one that was in poor condition to the pigsters this morning - they loved it!

 

[lcertuche]

Yeah, it's too bad that pumpkin seeds are not really suppose to be a dewormer. At least they are full of nutrition as are the pumpkin flesh and skin. I love being able to throw my frozen, raw tomatoes out to my chickens. Nothing really goes to waste on a farm.

 

[lcertuche]

I love volunteer plants. I got squash one year so maybe next spring you'll get some pumpkin. If they in the pig pen then you know they are fertilized. I imagine you could save the tomato plants. Just pot them up and put in a sunny window. They would be pretty leggy but just bury them trench style for lots of roots when you did set them out. If they are crowded in a pot of plain dirt maybe they wouldn't grow to fast. Maybe build a hoop house out of fence panels and plastic. Put bales of hay around them with a floating cover under the hoop house. That's how some do up north. Anyway, maybe to much trouble for a maybe survival rate. Fun thinking about it though. If its in your critter pen they will probably eat the plants anyway.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Nothing really goes to waste on a farm.

That's the motto at our house!

@Mini Horses - I say go for it with at least a couple of those 'mater plants. Worth a try!

 

[Beekissed]

Yeah, it's too bad that pumpkin seeds are not really suppose to be a dewormer. At least they are full of nutrition as are the pumpkin flesh and skin. I love being able to throw my frozen, raw tomatoes out to my chickens. Nothing really goes to waste on a farm.

But they are a dewormer...

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00436-015-4416-0?no-access=true

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/a...xima-pumpkin-seeds-carica-papaya-papaya-seeds

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123756886101100

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3103934/




From the study, it is observed that Z. zerumbet has shown better activity than C. maxima at a higher concentration (100 mg/ml) compared to standard Albendazole (100 mg/ml). The comparison of death time for both the plants in different concentrations with respect to standard (Albendazole).

 

[Beekissed]

I just let them eat all the pumpkin seeds they want and figure whatever the dose, any is better than no pumpkin seeds at all. I don't think God made any mistakes on that, with pumpkins and gourds being a fall type crop that stores well and can provide good nutrition in the winter for livestock...as well as help control their parasites when it's most needed.

Here's a recipe someone posted on FB that I've yet to try but really want to....

http://www.runningwithspoons.com/20...&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork