Good for more than just carving!

Pumpkins are $2 each, and I’ll throw in an extra or two with each purchase.

Have you ever made homemade pumpkin pie directly from a fresh, farm raised pumpkin?  Those that have will be nodding their heads emphatically.  Those that haven’t… well… we’re here to help you realize the delicious difference between fresh and canned pumpkins.

I remember a few years ago there was a big story in the news.  It was close to Thanksgiving, and people were freaking out because a certain brand of canned pumpkin was in short supply.  I couldn’t help but shake my head and grin.  Sometimes it’s just best to go direct to the source.

As you can see from the pictures, we’re clearly sitting on more pie pumpkins than we can use.  Though our farm is not organic, these pumpkins were grown using organic methods (a principle I adhere to very strictly for anything that will be eaten by humans).  We keep them well away from the conventional crops, and plant them in healthy soil with a thick bed of hay mulch for the plants to spread out on.  We baby them a little at first until they get established.  Then, aside from regular watering, they basically take care of themselves until harvest time.  No sprays or artificial fertilizers of any kind.  They store pretty well for a couple of months, so I’ll have them available for purchase until spoilage becomes an issue (probably around Christmas time).

If you have freezer space, these can be baked and scooped into freezer bags pretty quickly, so you can enjoy farm raised pumpkin year-round.  I usually do 2 cups per bag, since most recipes call for that quantity.

I’ll put together a blog post on how to prepare and preserve these, and will include my favorite recipe for pumpkin pie filling.  I searched forever for a recipe that DOESN’T require evaporated milk.  Common sense says that our ancestors made pies JUST FINE without needing a weird specialty item that you can’t easily make yourself, and which most people only use in one dish.  My recipe uses half & half, and it is OUTSTANDING.