Skip to main content

Possibilities With Pumpkins: The Life Cycle of a Squash Enhances the Family Circle

Picking a pumpkin is one of the joys of childhood. In autumn pumpkins are ubiquitous at grocery stores, garden centers, and farmers markets. The most fun place is the pumpkin patch where children can see the fruit as part of the life cycle of a living vine.

Within the life cycle of the seasons in a garden the pumpkin goes full circle. Seeds sown in spring produce a flowering vine throughout the summer. Fruits harvested in autumn become decorations, food for wildlife and humans, residence for rodents, and seeds for snacks and next year’s garden. Winter remnants of the plant become organic nutrients in soil supporting seeds sown in spring.

Pumpkins prompt possibilities which link generations together in the family circle. The simple act of picking a pumpkin can spread into a lifetime of happy memories.

 

Pumpkin Puree

Making pumpkin puree is a fun and easy family afternoon activity. Puree is used for pie, bread, pudding, muffins, mousse, flan, soup, stew, and soufflé.

Directions:

  1. Wash and quarter a small pie pumpkin.
  2. Remove loose fibers and seeds by hand.
  3. Clean seeds with running water in a sieve and dry on paper towels for future use.
  4. Wrap each quarter in microwave plastic before placing in the microwave for 5-8minutes or until the pulp is soft.
  5. Cool wedges before removing pulp from shell.
  6. Puree pulp in blender. Use immediately or freeze for up to 6 months.
  7. Shuttle the pumpkin shell to the compost pile.

Pumpkin Seeds

Save some seeds for next year’s pumpkin patch. Apportion the rest for snacks and craft projects.

To prepare roasted pumpkin seeds coat seeds with vegetable oil and a dash of salt. Spread the mix on a cookie sheet and bake at 250ºF for about an hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Dry or roasted nuts are delicious solo or added to cereal, trail mix, salads, and muffins.

Seed crafts include necklaces, tambourines, collages, mosaics, seed bags, and paintings.

To make a seed tambourine, fill an aluminum pie pan with dried pumpkin seeds. Cover with an empty pan. Staple the rims of the pans so the seeds cannot fall out. Staple colorful ribbons to the edges of the pans and decorate the surface with stickers. Children can summon family to the holiday table with pumpkin seed tambourines and create rhythmical dances with siblings, parents, pets, and grandparents.

Pumpkin seed bags are bean bags with pumpkin seeds instead of beans. They make safe soft catchables for young children and for arthritic hands of grandparents. Add catnip to one bag to engross the family cat.

The Family Pumpkin Patch

Saving pumpkin seeds provides the incentive to start next year’s family pumpkin patch.

Bring the family together to draft drawings for next year’s patch. Distribute sheets of drawing paper and colored pencils to each participant. After each has sketched a rough plan, convene to agree on a master plan.

Pumpkins grow in full sun in a loam or sandy soil with a pH of 6-7.5. Obtain a pH test of your soil in fall for next year’s garden. Ideal growing temperatures for pumpkins are between 65º and 75º. Germination to harvest takes from 90-120 days. Pumpkins are 90 percent water and require adequate space to grow and plenty of water and nutrients.

To grow larger pumpkins remove all but a few fruits from each vine. To challenge the world record of 1,140 pounds, remove all but one fruit per vine.

At harvest time invite friends and neighbors to pumpkin weigh-in and number of seeds guessing games.

The post Possibilities With Pumpkins: The Life Cycle of a Squash Enhances the Family Circle appeared first on Downtown Homestead.



from Downtown Homestead http://downtownhomestead.com/possibilities-pumpkins-life-cycle-squash-enhances-family-circle/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Changes Can I Make to My Garden to Be More Natural?

Gardening has changed a bit in recent years as people’s philosophy of gardening is starting to change to go back to more natural and organic methods. For those who have been gardening for a number of years, these new practices might be a bit hard to understand at first since the traditional ways of doing things is adding chemicals to the soil or plants to take care of problems and grow larger plants. Organic methods work a bit differently. Traditional methods use chemical fertilizers to add nutrients to the soil. Organic methods use compost . This is organic matter and carbon matter mixed together. This would be things like fruit peels, vegetables, grass, hay, leaves, and other types of waste mixed together. Over time it breaks down into rich soil that doesn’t need any fertilizer at all. A good compost is natural and doesn’t require extra chemicals. Pest control is a bit more difficult since you don’t want to use chemicals on your plants that end up killing everything. There are a fe...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Create an Evening Oasis of Bloom and Fragrance

I think it is equally important to turn your outside space into a place to feed your family, but not overlook the chance to escape into it. We have a suburban house, that has a backyard backed up to 5 other yards, so we wanted to create a perfect little oasis for ourselves to escape into. So, we are creating a moonlight garden, to give us a perfect little escape for those late-night bonfires.   Many plants bloom in the evening, particularly in warm climates, and their delicious fragrance can be smelled on the breeze perfuming the whole area. The flowers are usually white or light yellow.   One vine that I especially like is an annual called, appropriately enough, moonflower. It’s in the same family as morning glories and the large white flowers can be up to 6 inches across and very fragrant.   The great thing about this plant is the way it opens its flowers. The large buds look like furled white beach umbrellas. But look again. Did you see the bud move? As the twili...
Post a Comment
Read more

Soil Basics – Creating Fertile, Healthy Soil

Have you ever looked at the soil in your garden and considered it as anything more than dirt? If not you should because there is a lot more there than meets the eye. It performs many functions that you may not be aware of and having good quality soil in your garden is essential for your plants. In this article we will look at the functions of soil, what different types there are and finally some ways to make it healthier. Functions of Soil The most immediately apparent function of soil is a medium to support plant life. It provides support both physically and biologically. Physical support is provided by allowing the plant to grow its roots through the soil to hold itself in place. Biological support is provided by its ability to hold nutrients and water that the plant needs. It also supports other types of life as well. Microorganisms and insects live in the soil and they in turn aid plant life by helping to decay organic material and adding structure to the soil. Soil allows the gr...
Post a Comment
Read more