Harvest Summer and My Pumpkin Update

Back in mid-July I promised I would do an update on the pumpkin patch later in the season. Since I grow short season pumpkins, the vines are already dying back, revealing the pumpkins and squash to color-up in the sunshine. Hard to imagine for those of you still experiencing summer's heat, but in my area the sun is already coming through at such an angle that it feels like what I call "harvest summer."

Harvest summer is still summer, albeit cooler nights and days, but because I plant so many early season or short season varieties of just about everything, many are ready for harvest in late August or the beginning of September. I will spend the next several weeks in harvest mode.

Spirit Pumpkin

Here's the largest of the orange pumpkins. It was one of the first to set on the vine. The variety is Spirit, and it's a semi-determinate. Semi-determinate and determinate pumpkins have shorter vines, reach a specific size, bloom in a tight window, set their fruit, and then stop growing. Once this one pumpkin had set, that vine sent the signal to the plant's base to stop setting more fruit on that vine. It then put all of its energy into growing that one fruit, and now ripening it fully before mid- September.

Delicata-Carving Pumpkin Cross

This next photo is of one of three delicata/carving pumpkin hybrids. I planted seeds saved from a previous year where cross-pollination happened. I won't know how tasty it is inside until it fully ripens. Right now, it's yellowing and the green stripes are beginning to turn orange.

Ghost Pumpkin

And here's one of the white pumpkins. I bought the parent plant in April at the garden center. It hasn't done as well for me as I'd hoped. The variety is Ghost. I have three from that plant, and all are small. The variety was supposed to grow larger pumpkins. It could be that our soil and weather conditions just didn't line up with what this plant needed. But I have three, and that's better than none. Two of the three still have a hint of green on the white skin. They will turn to creamy white by late September.

In total, I have 15 pumpkins and squashes this year. A couple didn't make it. That happens.

Pumpkin Farms vs. Home Pumpkin Patches

If you've ever visited a commercial pumpkin farm (the kind of place you visit to choose a carving pumpkin), you've likely seen indeterminate varieties growing in the field. Farms have a great deal of space to allow vines to sprawl and pumpkin fruit to grow into large or extra large sizes. The extra large fruits require significant field space to grow to that size. 

Home gardeners usually choose a determinate or semi-determinate variety, looking for space efficiency, disease resistance, and specific culinary or decorative uses. Because home gardens have much less space than commercial farms, a plant's growth habit is one of the most critical decisions a gardener makes. 

When you compare yield between the two growing venues and types of plants, surprisingly, you can get more fruit per square foot in a home garden, growing determinate or semi-determinate varieties.

The Path to the Pick

My own patch has at least another 2 weeks before I can begin to harvest what it produced. In that time, all of the squash and pumpkins will continue to gain their color and the stems will turn from green to a dull brownish green or even tan. 

After cutting the stems from the vines, I'll need to sun-cure these so they will keep longer. Sun-curing takes about 10 to 14 days. I can do this in the garden itself or on the deck, up against the house in mid to late September. I prefer to move the pumpkins up near the house to the deck. In this way, I can watch for extra cold nights, and pop them inside for the night, then put them back out on the deck the next day, if need be. The roof overhang will shield the pumpkins from rainfall, but the end of September isn't usually terribly rainy. 

Once the pumpkins are sun-cured, they'll keep until late December or into January in my cool storage room. This room is shut off from the furnace, and by late October it will remain in the mid to upper 50s.

Using My Home-Grown Pumpkins

I like to use these pumpkins and squashes cooked in 2-inch chunks and oven-roasted. They are quite tasty cooked this way. The skin is usually soft enough to eat, as well. The roasted chunks can be eaten, as is, or whirled into a soup or sauce with the immersion blender.

I do like to have several containers of pureed pumpkin in the freezer for baking and smoothies. But I use purchased carving pumpkins to make that puree. 

I don't use many of my home-grown pumpkins as carving ones for Halloween. I feel they're too precious as a food item to use that way. Perhaps if I had a huge field for a garden, I would have enough squash and pumpkins that I could sacrifice one or two to carving.

The hardest part of the growing season is almost over, and the fun part is just beginning. Soon, my little patch will yield a bounty of bright orange, pale yellow, and creamy white fruits ready for the kitchen table. Keep following along as I harvest the crop and start turning these homegrown beauties into autumn meals. Until next time, happy gardening!