Pumpkin emergency?

[kragore]

Apparently, there is a great canned pumkin shortage in the greater MA area, due to low pumpkin yealds this year.

Ask me how I know.

Anyway, you might want to build in an extra few hours for rendering down pumpkin this fall if any of your recipies call for canned pumpkin.
It's not hard - halve small sugar pumpkin, scoop out seeds and goo, place on foil lined cookie sheet, cut side down and roast until soft, cool, remove flesh from skins and smoosh through strainer. Let stand in fridge for night, remove excess moisture, use as you would canned pumpkin.

But it's time consuming, and many of the sugar pumpkins I've picked up locally were still a bit green.
I will now add processing and freezing pumpkin in 1 cup increments to the list of things I can do in my "spare" time...

Comments

[termofart.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh. oooooh!

I had NO PUMPKINS in my yard and was bereft, but knowing it was a shit year makes me feel better.

I like to do as many pumpkins as possible, and then freeze the stuff for later. Makes it more worth the work (and when you defrost, even more moisture exits... convenient!) But you can do two or three pumpkins at a time in the oven with only maybe a few more minutes cook time.

(this whole thing, though, makes me consider buying a food mill or a chinois, which I've been putting off....)

[kragore.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I'm thinking a food mill, since yes, I'm planning on doing many of the things at a time. Let me know if you see them somewhere reasonable.

[safirasilv.livejournal.com]

So I'd heard. We don't use a lot of canned pumpkin, but I'd been thinking about trying the cooking-down-real-pumpkins bit anyway and that's an added incentive.

[kragore.livejournal.com]

I use a lot of it - Pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie - I just tried a new recipe for yeast-based pumpkin bread, and I think it is full of awesome, I just need to tinker with it, (oh, and get and OVEN THAT HOLDS EFFING TEMPERATURE.)
(But I digress...)

Anyway. this news makes me sad. Especially since I can't seem to find nice ripe sugar pumpkins. Last night's roast was pretty green, such that I don't know if I want to use them...

[medievalbooks.livejournal.com]

I saw some nice ones up at Clearview farm in Sterling this past weekend...almost got some but had just finished buying a boatload of peaches and apples for canning.

HMmmm, maybe another trip to Clearview is in order for some sugar pumpkins

[pelgar.livejournal.com]

How do you know?

[kragore.livejournal.com]

Many area supermarkets have see me peering helplessly at the bottom row of the "baking goods" and mumbling to myself.
The local one now knows me as the Pumpkin Lady. And they know enough to ask how the process went with the fresh ones...