The Modern Victory Garden

After we got home from a big Costco shopping expedition and everything was put away, I took advantage of a brief break in the weather to remove the Siletz and Stupice tomato plants that had also succumbed to the blight infection.   This leaves just three Legend tomato plants in place in the garden now.   Prior to removing the plants, I harvested everything left that did not have blight lesions formed and which had at least broken color somewhat.   

I also harvested some cucumbers, pole beans, and corn.                         

And one of the many pumpkins was harvested too.                            

After the tomato patch was substantially cleaned up, I planted a 12 foot by 4 foot section in spinach and a 8 foot by 4 foot section in a green manure / cover crop of crimson clover.   The spinach will be the over wintering patch for this year.   A large over wintered spinach patch feeds us well from late February through April - when the garden's production is at its lowest point.                                     

Back inside the house, it was time to clean out the inside of the pumpkin.      

The seeds were rinsed and then placed on a paper towel lined cookie sheet to dry.                                                      

I will hold out the best of these for seed saving and the rest will be roasted - basted with some melted butter and seasoned based on my taste at that time.   Pumpkin seeds can be dressed very simply with just a sprinkle of salt, or can be made more interesting by adding a little cayenne pepper to the melted butter.                       

I like to use my turkey roaster pan for cooking pumpkins and squash.   I put water in the bottom of the pan and then lay the quartered pumpkin (rind side facing up) onto the rack.                            

These are then cooked in a 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour.   I use a fork to check that the pumpkin is soft throughout.   The pan is then removed from the oven, the water drained out, and the cooked pumpkin sections are set aside to cool.   Once they are cooled down sufficiently, the cooked pumpkin meat is scooped out and put into the food processor and pureed.   

Two cups of the pumpkin puree was reserved out for pie making, and the rest was put into quart sized Ziploc freezer bags - 2 cups or 1 lb per bag - for freezing. I got four bags for the freezer plus the pumpkin pie from just this one pumpkin.      

Yummy!