Recipe: Turn tiny pumpkins into fun fall side dish
|
What do you do with little pumpkins?
Every October, these baseball-size orange orbs pop up at farmstands and in markets. They’re attractive, piled in a basket or arranged in a harvest display. But how do you eat them?
Treat mini pumpkins like what they are: Winter squash. Just about any recipe for acorn squash, for example, can be adapted to a mini pumpkin, too.
Like any vegetable, some varieties are tastier than others. (Flat, hard minis border on “decorative use” only.) For cooking, choose mini pumpkins with smooth skin and round shape; they have better texture and more flesh.
This summer, I grew a late harvest of Wee-B-Little pumpkins, grown from seed (available from JohnnySeeds.com). The 1999 All-America Seed Selection winner, this compact semi-bush dwarf pumpkin thrives in a relatively small space; the whole plant covers less than 3 feet square.
Planted in early July, Wee-B-Little has been prolific with several 3- to 4-inch round pumpkins, weighing just under 1 pound each. They’re adorable.
My original intention was to carve a bunch of mini jack-o-lanterns, but the seed cavity inside each Wee-B-Little was too small and the walls too thick.
|
Comments
0 comments have been posted.Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Thanks to Our Sponsor!
Local News
Sites We Like
Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
Powered by California Local
