Pumpkin Rescue!

Long-time readers here may recall the pumpkin I lost to mold last year. We get pumpkins around Halloween at our CSA and one of mine molded last year in mid-February. I learned from that experience and stored my two large pumpkins in a cooler room this year. I made sure they had sufficient air circulation around them and were not touching anything on the sides. (The bad one last year started rotting where it was in contact with a wall.)


On Saturday afternoon, however, I noticed a soft spot starting on the back of my pumpkin. It was time to process it. As luck would have it, I woke up early on Sunday morning so I decided to tackle the 17 pound squash. Normally, I bake winter squash - it brings out their natural sweetness - to puree and store in the freezer. That didn't seem like the best idea right now since I'm trying to empty out the freezer. However, I can use up some pureed pumpkin before we move, in breads, muffins, soups, and faux cheesy sauces, so I decided to bake half of it. That's all that would fit in the oven anyway!

For the other half, I pondered whether to dehydrate it or can it. Canning it would force me to try out the pressure canner again, but I already had a full day planned in the kitchen baking a cake and making burritos (including the tortillas) from scratch. I decided to dehydrate it instead. Little did I realize how labor-intensive that would turn out to be.

To dehydrate winter squash, the recommendation is to cut it into 1" wide strips, peel them, and then cut them crosswise in 1/8" slices. Whew. This took quite some time. The slices then need to be blanched, in small batches, for 4 minutes before being laid out on the dehydrating trays. This whole process took several hours but I finally had all ten of my dehydrating trays loaded and drying.

There was still about one-fifth of the pumpkin left! I decided to bake it too, but using a different method. I originally saw this recipe in a Hopi Indian cookbook and found another version online. Cut the pumpkin into cubes and place in a baking pan. Add a boatload of brown sugar. Yes, "boatload" is the measurement I use. Sprinkle with salt and cinnamon. Dot with vegan margarine (or butter, if you insist). Cover and bake at 350 degrees until soft. (Check it at about 45 minutes.) I cooked this in the solar oven since it was a nice afternoon, baking it a couple of hours at the lower heat.

While that was cooking, I processed the baked pumpkin half. Did I mention that I used retained heat cooking for part of the time? We wanted to go to the Farmer's Market on Easter to get the last strawberries of the season. The pumpkin was not tender yet, so I turned the oven off and set up my retained heat system in a box to accommodate the large roasting pan. By afternoon, the pumpkin was done. I pureed it in batches to freeze.

On Monday morning, I collected all the tiny bits of dried pumpkin from the dehydrator. It always amazes me how much food shrinks when dry. They also look a little bit like orange corn flakes, so I guess it would be a good idea for me to label them clearly.


Here is a picture of the processed pumpkin. The frozen puree is probably equal to at least 6, and maybe 8, cans of pumpkin puree. The dehydrated pumpkin will rehydrate to a fair amount of squash. And the sweet baked pumpkin will be tasty for breakfast or dessert. Probably breakfast because we're still eating strawberries.