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Welcome
to About our pumpkins . . . |
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How
to Cook |
At Blueberry Bay Farm, we
specialize in growing unique pumpkin and winter squash varieties. We think
pumpkins and winter squash are amazing fruit (almost as amazing as
blueberries). They are exciting to
grow, come in all shapes and colors, and have endless possibilities in the
kitchen. But our farm is small and
pumpkins need lots of space to grow. . .
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Hence our approach. Sure, we grow traditional
jack-o-lanterns. But on our limited
land we have decided to specialize in growing smaller quantities of varieties
you may not be able to find elsewhere. And we try to find the best of everything
- great tasting varieties, great looking varieties, heirlooms and historic
varieties, ethnic varieties, and good keeping varieties. On this page we have tried to share what we have learned
about pumpkins and squash, and why we think they are so special. We encourage you to visit and try something
new - ask us, we have plenty of ideas.
And of course, cooking with pumpkins requires a bit of work - but we
think it is worth it Pumpkin or Winter
Squash? As a fruit, we think pumpkins and winter squash are,
with few exceptions, interchangeable.
In fact, the line between the two is pretty gray. As it turns out, most pumpkins and winter
squash are members of three species of the genus Cucurbita. Most traditional jack-o-lanterns and small
pie pumpkins belong to the Cucurbita pepo species.
But delicata, summer, acorn, and spaghetti
squashes are members of this species as well.
Butternut squashes are members of the Cucrubita moschata species, while most other
winter squashes including many varieties known as pumpkins, are Cucurbita maxima. So that is why we use the term pumpkin and
winter squash almost interchangeably - many fruits which are true pumpkins
are known as squashes, while many true squashes are often known as
pumpkins. Just like the saying "One
person's weed is another person's wildflower," we think "one
person's squash is another person's pumpkin." Which squash can you
cook with? Virtually all winter squashes and pumpkins, with the
exception of spaghetti squash, can be used in all winter squash and pumpkin
recipes. While there is variation in
color, taste, and water content, with most recipes we have never found any of
those variations to be a huge issue.
That being said, we do generally not use giant pumpkin and
jack-o-lantern flesh in cooking (although you can), because the flesh is just
not as good. Every other variety of
winter squash and pumpkin we sell at the farm is of great eating quality. Click here to see our
flyer on how to cook pumpkins and transform them into a useable
ingredient. (.pdf, 155k) Our Pumpkin and Winter
Squash Varieties 2007 Update – We
will have jack-o-lanterns, Dickenson pumpkins, and Sucrine
Du Charisma is our Jack-O-Lantern variety – a
great traditional carving pumpkin. And, we have one new heirloom, the Sucrine
Du Berry, which is a popular french
market fruit. We hope you will be able to stop by this fall to see
some of these great fruits of our garden.
We are open weekends in the fall (Sat/Sun 9-5).
All of our crops are grown “Naturally” – we use no synthesized
chemicals ã 2007 Ronald B.
Laurence |
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