I love Halloween with all the festive parties and decorations! Our neighborhood used to be so lit up with decorations and even shared a little friendly ‘competitive’ spirit to see who would do what for their decorations each year. Total innocent fun as there was never a repeat. Each house was always decorated differently from the next then the pandemic hit and no one put out any decorations. The last couple Halloweens have been dark and sad. . . but not this year!
It is so fun to see the neighborhood come alive with excitement again! Everyone outside decorating and having fun doing so. Spooky sounds and songs have filled the air while it seems every person in the households participate in the preparation for Halloween. Being a modern day homestead, we decided to create a Witches covenstead. If you don’t know, a “Witch’s Covenstead” is, well, their home, so we created a scene that made sense. . . it tells a story.
In our story, the elder Witch enjoys conjuring up brews and spirits in her home that is adorned with pumpkins, candles, a Mummy and several skeletons. Outside in the graveyard and overhead are flying Witches and Bats plus her many ‘Sisters’ surround a cauldron of spell making ingredients while some ‘Sisters’ stand guard making sure there are no unwanted guests. Oh sure, the ‘Sisters’ will pick and choose who and what they will let past to ‘join’ the festivities but not before they welcome them with a cackle or two.
We have also added another new element to the decorations. Instead of carving our pumpkins, we are adding whole pumpkins to our outside experience and there is a really good reason. We are going to make pumpkin puree out of them when we are finished with them in the ‘graveyard.’ All pumpkins (and squash,) are edible but some are sweeter than others. Since the Witches won’t be needing them and we are not picky about sweetness, these Jack-o-lantern wanna be’s will be perfect for our puree.
When wanting to make pumpkin puree, decide what you will be using it for. Will it be bread, pie, cookies or what we use it for, our dogs intestinal health. Homemade dog treats or cookies keeps them eliminating regularly so as they age, constipation isn’t an issue. Pumpkin is also, along with Zucchini, a natural dewormer for our Chickens. We only have one right now but she gets to have a healthy intestinal tract too!
Once you’ve decided what you are going to use your pumpkins for, there are some pumpkin varieties that go with specifically what your needs are. For instance, sweet or sugar pumpkins are great for baking. There are a rainbow of colors and varieties to choose from for this, however, a good cultivated specifically for baking is the best. These pumpkins are small, round and heavy for their size. Our larger pumpkins will have a more stringy flesh when cooking them down so an Emerson Blender or Blender will be necessary if we want a puree. If we want chunks, we will cut it that way, pre-freeze for one hour before vacuum sealing the chunks in bags for later use.
Side Note: To make the pumpkins easier to peel, we will bake them at 375 degrees F in the oven for at for about 15-30 minutes (small), 30-45 minutes (medium), 45-60 minutes (large,) making sure it is fork tender., cool for a bit, peel the skin off, then process.
We tried to ‘potato peel’ the skins off our last batch of our garden grown pumpkin but I don’t recommend it. One of two things will happen if you have patience like me. Number one, you will accuse every potato peeler you have in your drawer of being dull and old and stupid and useless or, number two, you will change to using a really good chef knife and accusing it of the same thing. You might even want to throw said knife at the wall followed by the pumpkin that is not peeling as you feel it should. I vowed to NEVER to make puree again as it was just too hard to do that way. Did I research prior? Nope. Just decided to do it the hard way. Oy!
Don’t forget to process your pumpkin correctly for safety reasons after you do all the hard work it takes to get your desired cubes, (chunks,) slices. If you want puree, freeze it (Ice cube trays work great for this,) or use it within a few days. If you are planning on doing home canning, you MUST use the PRESSURE CANNING METHOD. Pumpkin is a low-acidic food so DO NOT use the water bath method.
This is a good link to learn more about Pumpkin Food Preservation:
https://nchfp.uga.edu/tips/fall/pumpkins.html#:~:text=To%20be%20safe%2C%20all%20low,(Ensuring%20Safe%20Canned%20Foods).
Question: What do you like to do with your pumpkins? Leave a comment in the comment section so we can all learn from each other!
Whatever you do today aside from Pumpkin Prep, be safe, have fun, do good in the world. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Love, Light and Peace
