Growing, Harvesting, Preserving Pumpkin...And Ice Cream!

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      This year in my garden, I had so many volunteer pumpkin plants come up!  The seeds were 2 years old, so I didn't think they would grow. I didn't bother finding all of them amidst my soil and doing anything about them.  I figured that any old seeds would simply become compost.  I planted squash in that plot.  But when plants began to sprout up, there were many more squash looking sprouts than I had planted!  I was afraid to thin too many because I didn't want to pull out the squash that I wanted to grow!  Unfortunately, that is what I did though.  I wrote a post about my pattypan squash that talks about this as well.  The outcome of this adventure was that I harvested a total of 3 or 4 pattypan squash and over 15 pumpkins! 
      Of course, the pumpkins are actually a blessing as well as a surprise and I have been putting them to good use.  My pumpkins aren't those little sugar pumpkins that they sell in the stores for pies, but I wasn't going to let these go to waste, so I have been processing them and using them and let me tell you, they taste really good!  

     Because I live in the hot desert of Arizona, my garden goes in early and these pumpkins started growing in March.  I had pumpkins on the vine and starting to ripen by June!  I just harvested my last one last week.  Pumpkins will keep for a few months in a cool place, but in Arizona, we don't have root cellars and I have been stacking my pumpkins wherever I can in my house and keeping an eye on them, making sure that they aren't going to go bad.  

Harvesting Pumpkins

     I tried to leave them on the vine for as long as possible.  For one thing, it is hard to decide when they are ready to harvest.  I tried the fingernail test, the thumping test, but finally when the stems begin to lose their green color, I picked them.  I had to really watch them in the heat because they will sometimes get sunburned and develop a soft spot.  I picked those and processed them right away.  Those that I am storing, I keep a good eye on.  It would be fun if some made it to Halloween, but I have my doubts.  

Processing or What I Like to Call Butchering the Pumpkins

      Lindsey has written a good tutorial about making your own pumpkin puree that you can refer to.  I will expand on it a bit here. 
      It is really easy to clean out a pumpkin when you cut it into halves or sections and then clean out the seeds.  I like to use a metal spoon to scrape out the stringy bits.  Then, I pop them into a 350 degree oven until they are all melty looking and fork tender.  The skin will practically just peel off with a tug.  

I use my food processor or my blender to blend up the puree. I have used both, but I think I prefer my food processor for this job.

      At this point, when you taste the puree, you may be surprised at how sweet the roasted pumpkin is on its own!  It is really delicious! 
      My pumpkins were mostly pretty large and I was able to get about 2-3 cups of puree from each pumpkin.  I used my Food Saver to seal the pumpkin puree in plastic bags in the freezer.  (There are many choices of vacuum sealers on Amazon.)  ​Here is my system for using them.

Use a tall cup and push the bag in, opening it up as far as you can.

I measured 2 cups to each bag.

Pull the bag out of the cup and flatten to smooth and fill the bag as much as possible. Leave room at the top to put in the sealer.

Place the top edge of the bag into the appropriate spot of your sealer. Mine has a green reservoir that it goes into because since this is a wet product, there may be fluid that comes our with the air that is sucked out.

Close the lid and then vacuum and seal the package.

Be sure to write the date, contents and amount on the bag. Leave the bag flat, perhaps on a cookie sheet, to put it in the freezer for storage. That makes them easy to stack in your freezer until you are ready to use the puree.

     So far, I have more pumpkin puree in my freezer than you can shake a stick at!  I see pumpkin bread and pumpkin pies in my future for quite some time!  
     Oh!  One thing that I almost forgot to mention is that my son smoked a couple of the pumpkins for me, and then I pureed them.  I'm excited to use that smokey tasting pumpkin in some of our recipes! 
     Of course, since Lindsey is our pumpkin queen in our family, we have a number of other pumpkin recipes.  Some are sweet and some are savory.  I will post a list for you below.  

​Pumpkin Ice Cream

      I decided that I really wanted to do something else with some pumpkin puree that I hadn't frozen yet, so I since I love using my Kitchen Aid Ice Cream Bowl, I decided to try my hand at some pumpkin spice ice cream!  My grandson who doesn't eat sugar was coming over, so I decided I would sweeten it with maple syrup!  It came out really tasty!  The only thing about it is that after it stays in the freezer too long, like overnight, it gets a bit icy, so I'm working on that part.  I'm thinking of trying a custard style cooked base, which I haven't tried yet.  But, if you are going to make this ice cream and eat it within a few hours, it is super good! Give it a try and tell me what you think!  I mean, the little bit icy kind is still good, especially as it softens.  It won't go to waste, believe me!  If you have any tips about this subject let me know and I will update this recipe! 
       The maple syrup was the perfect sweetener to go with the pumpkin pie spice! 
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click the recipe for a printable copy

Other Pumpkin Recipes We've Shared: 

• Creamy Pumpkin Pasta
• Pumpkin Chili (my favorite!)
• Butternut Squash Lasagna with Pumpkin Pasta Sauce
• Pumpkin Stew in a Pumpkin
• Baked Chicken With Pumpkin Sauce
• Pumpkin Pie
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies​ (my other fav!)

What are some of your favorite pumpkin recipes?  I need all of the recipes I can get! Leave me a comment and help me out! 
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