What welcomes fall more than a trip to the pumpkin patch?
We decided to go to the same pumpkin farm as we did last year to pick up a few pumpkins like the Cinderella pumpkin and the Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin. We plan on cooking and turning the pumpkin into purée to bake with as well as carve at Halloween. We love heading out which is about an hour’s drive there — it’s beautiful country!
I also love all the photo opportunities at the pumpkin farm! We had so much fun despite all the wasps!
Look at those pumpkins! There’s nothing nicer to see than a field of pumpkins! It is so much neater to look at in person!
Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins are more suitable for carving because of their size. They also have a larger surface to carve designs into and are more hollow than other varieties. They can grow between 5 to 15 pounds but can get a lot larger! They have a high water content, so they can be cooked or baked with but can be more stringy the larger the pumpkin is.
My daughters picked their favorites to carve!
The cinderella pumpkin is a more flat and squashed looking pumpkin. It can average 10 to 49 pounds. This pumpkin can be used to decorate with or cook in sweet or savoury applications.
I love that the pumpkin patch allows furry friends to come as long as the owners respect their rules! Rosie here is sitting on our pumpkin picks in our wagon!
We were lucky this time and the pumpkins were already ripened and cured! But if you have pumpkins that are green or starting to turn orange, they’ll need to be cured before winter. Curing the pumpkins properly will allow you to store them for longer. Cured pumpkins can last between 3 to 12 months. Last year, our pumpkins we cured lasted almost a year! I was so surprised! Now we know how the pioneers were able to have pumpkin in the middle of winter!
TO CURE:
Leave in the sun, about 1-2 weeks at 15C to 25C. The sunshine will help develop the color. No frost. No freezing. No storing on concrete. No snow.
TO STORE:
Cured pumpkins needs to be stored in a cool, about 7C to 15C, dry place, off the ground with air flow under the pumpkins.
To bake and puree the pumpkin is simple! You can use the puree in pumpkin pie like in my mom’s recipe found here: Mom’s Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie and other baked goods like these Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies that I had since I was a kid. The pumpkin puree can also be poured into freezer-safe containers and placed in the freezer from 6 months up to a year. Pumpkin puree is so versatile!
Needing help on how to prepare pumpkin to puree? Check out my post here on Preparing Pumpkin Puree.
Plus there were pumpkins that you could purchase at check out that were more ornamental and were in different shades of orange and white along with an assortment of gourds.
Update::
Here’s our carved pumpkins:
