Not Green Pumpkins
James Jones | 09.10.2007 12:48
My teenage daughter has insisted I write this article.After listening to her points I agree she has a point.
Due to a poor summer this years crop of pumpkins are going to be green.The company's that market them are spending thousands on heating to get them orange,not a very green thing to do my daughter says.But her main point is no one eats them.The contents are scraped out and put in the bin.The hollow shell is then used to make lanterns for Holloween.Do people eat them?I rang everyone i knew and asked them and the reply was ugh no.So maybe the insides of 2 million pumpkins are binned.What should be done with them is this(i'm told).The company's that sell them should only sell the shell for the Holloween market and can the contents to be sent to parts of the world were food is needed.Mixed with maize it would make a good bread.Even the empty can would be put to use by a very inventive and creative people.I have been told and now so have you.
James Jones
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pumpkins
09.10.2007 19:42
Yes of course! Well not once made into a jack-o-lantern and sitting around enough to spoil.
Apparently you folks are unfamiliar with this member of the squash family (most of what are sold as pumpkins, probably all for jack-o-lantern purposes, would be C. pepo)
The SHELL which is used to make a jack-o-lantern IS the edible part. Like other squashes, the seeds are in the cavity inside and yes, may be de-glopped and roasted (the really good pumpkin seeds come from the "naked seed" types but these don't usually ripen to a nice even orange and so "oil seed" pumpkin varieties not used for jack-o-lanterns).
It's the RIND or skin you don't eat, the hard outer shell which in a pumpkin is maybe 2-3 mm thick at most.
Easiest way to prepare (IMHO) is to cut the pumpkin up into pieces/strips and steam till tender. It's now easy to remove that outer rind from each piece before mashing. Classic use for the mashed pumpkin is for "pumpkin pie" but yes of course can be mixed with flours and baked into bread or unmashed pieces tossed into a stew or puree'd for a nice soup.
Mike Novack
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