Pumpkins

[mightymoo]

I pass a garden center / nursery on the way to DD's school everyday and they have an army of pumpkins in there, I'm thinking tomorrow they are going to be on super sale. I was thinking of my holiday gift baskets and maybe getting some pumpkins to cook, freeze the pulp to make pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie later for the gift baskets.

Any other good uses for pumpkins?

[Samjm]

You can also just chop it into cubes, peel them and freeze them like that, they work fine in stews etc (I normally just dump a few frozen cubes in the dish). I do the same with butternut.

[chel]

I was told that pumpkins for decorating are not for eating.

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by chel

I was told that pumpkins for decorating are not for eating.

What's the difference? Pesticides maybe? Hmmm. Still I bet the ones at the grocery store are on sale too.

[greenegirl]

You can eat them. But pumpkins for eating are generally smaller and have a sweeter flesh. Pumpkins for carving/decorating are generally grown for their size and uniform shape, which is not necessarily going to get you the best possible flavor, but they aren't inedible.

[snowbunny]

Originally Posted by mightymoo

What's the difference? Pesticides maybe? Hmmm. Still I bet the ones at the grocery store are on sale too.

Jack-o-lantern pumpkins just don't taste very good since they're bred for a different purpose. They tend to have harder rinds and stringier flesh that is pretty tasteless.

[chel]

sorry I didn't explain. What I heard is along the same line as PP, not poisionous or anything bad, just not tasty!