Busy week, gifts from nature and special mail :D!

It’s been a busy week for me as I “lost” my RMO last Friday due to staff shortages and then was rostered on Saturday with the regular work schedule so Sunday was catching up on things around the house – laundry, house cleaning etc and catching up on a few hours sleep. I also tried out some  additions to my sourdough baking and ended up with this. It's in the freezer until I finish eating the current loaf.

 I had my regular RMO on Tuesday and had a friend visit and even though Wednesday was a real “stinker” at work with the humidity I was rewarded with these lovely views of the evening sky when I took Flash for a walk after I came home.

 Shame they were only taken on the mobile phone as the colours aren’t what my eyes could see but if you “picture” almost iridescent blue skies and peachy orange clouds I’m sure you’ll see why I was entranced with the view J.

I discovered these on one of my pumpkin vines this morning as I was watering them and squashing 28 spot ladybugs. The leaf pictured below is what happens when these decide to chow down on your curcurbita!

This morning, when I arrived home from work, I took Flash for a walk across the park to the post office and collected the Soap by Sandy that I’d ordered a couple of weeks ago. Darn Auspost took their sweet time delivering them…..grrrrr. I love them! Some are for gifts and some are for me. They are currently sitting on the kitchen bench where I took this photo and the lounge/kitchen area smells divine J.

Hoping everyone else has a wonderful week too….or at least a few delightful days!

Cheers,

RobynLouise xo

More on pumpkins...

I had a comment from Wayne on my Pumpkin Pickin' Paradise post and I thought it would be easier to answer it here than in the comments section.

"Hello Robyn - Great article and pics. Very helpful. My "unplanned" vine started in a worm tower in December. Now, end of April, it has pumpkins of various sizes and still getting flowers and young fruit. Have not harvested any yet. How long should the vine keep producing pumpkins before it dies off? Regards Wayne"

As Wayne is a no reply blogger and I don't know his location I can only say that what happens here is that some pumpkins will be on the vine until the first frost, about May/June, when the vine dies off naturally. Some say it is best to leave them on the vine until then but we can have rodent problems so I prefer to harvest mine when I can. Also the hard skin pumpkins like Queensland Blue or Jarrahdale are better left until the vine dies down, so I've heard (keeping qualities/flavour apparently), but the soft skin varieties like JAP/Kent it doesn't seem to matter.

Wayne, experiment with yours - harvest one that has a dried pinched stem, put it in a dry semi sunny spot and watch for the stem rosette to wither and flatten, about 4 weeks or so, then cut it. As you cut it there should be a crisp cracking noise which also indicates that it's ripe. Some people tap the pumpkin on the bottom, like you do fresh cooked bread, to see if it's "done" before cutting, but I'm not good at predicting ripeness like this. Another way to check ripeness is to scratch a tiny spot of skin off the pumpkin and see it it "bleeds"or "oozes" and/or if it smells "green". If it does it's not ripe. If it just looks a bit wet in the scratched spot but doesn't ooze or if it stays dry it's ok to use. Document the results for future reference. Take photos if it helps.  Remember I'm only referring to JAP/Kent pumpkins and I'm not sure if this method works with other varieties of pumpkins.

A ripe JAP/Kent will keep for about 3 months in cool conditions then they begin to decompose inside. Not the type of pumpkin soup you want! Hard skin pumpkins left to dry on the vine will keep for 8-12 months without any effects so it's always good to be sure of which type you've unwittingly been gifted with by Mother Nature.

I neglected to put my pumpkin soup recipe on the recipes page when I made it, so that's done now, and I've just discovered I don't have any photos of my pumpkin soup. As you know I can't see the point of blogging if there's no pics to look at so I found a relevant photo in my photofile of a potholder I made for a swap a few years ago. I'm sure there's some of this fabric left too so there could be another potholder or so on the list.

Cheers,

Robyn xo

Pumpkin Scones, strange bugs and a Guarden Cat

Finally made the pumpkin scones and remembered to take a photo. Recipe is on the recipe page. Apologies about the photo, these were the last 4 of the unfrozen ones and the late afternoon light doesn't do them justice.

Whilst rearranging the garden beds I came across this little fellow and as I don't know if it's a friend or a foe I took a photo of it. It's a bit bigger than a lady bug and could even be a type of ladybug. Google images and various entomology and insect identification internet sources have not come up with anything like it's patterning so I still don't know what it is.
I'd be really pleased if someone could help with identification as I've never seen a bug with this patterning before.

Of course I had my chief guarden (yes, the misspelling is deliberate) assistant out there keeping the birds, field mice and other predators out of the pumpkins and other vegetables. She's not quite blending with the garden decor as the leaves aren't turning orangey colours yet but she is camouflaged enough to startle a thieving bird when she moves to a more comfortable position :). She won't be happy when I remove the last of the shady weeds from her spot under the orange tree! Other people put up bird stands but I think I'll have to erect a cat one as the vege garden is the tubby tabby's favourite daytime place.

Cheers,
Robyn xo

Pumpkin Pickin' Paradise!

As the rain is threatening again I decided, during a dry spell today, to have another poke around the grass/weed infested pumpkin patch.
 

 I think I'm going to have a stall at the local markets on the 20th of April as I discovered another 31 that needed harvesting and there's at least another 30 remaining that could do with a fortnight or so longer on the vines. Pumpkin profits will go towards the new set of reading spectacles I'm currently paying off :).

That's the only problem with JAP's, as they are more of a squash, their keeping properties aren't as long as the hard skinned pumpkins like the Queensland blue or Jarrahdale. There will be lots of freezer cooking happening in the future and I'm definitely going to try the pumpkin soup cooked in it's own shell this time. Wondering if I should serve it with pumpkin scones, pumpkin damper or pumpkin bread?



While I was picking I thought it would be handy to post pics of when to harvest JAP pumpkins, which you can tell from the condition of the stalk.

So from the top down:

Thick, plump stalk all the way down to the pumpkin means it's not remotely mature yet.

Narrowing at the main stem end means it's beginning to dry off but will still be very juicy and will leak this juice from the stem if you break it off, accidently or otherwise. It also means a cut or broken stem can begin to rot so you need to put these upside down to dry off and ripen so any juice that leaks out doesn't just lay on the top of the pumpkin and begin rotting it.

This is a good one to harvest as not only is the stem pinched, dried up and dark looking all along it's length but the spots on the pumpkin are a nice orange colour indicating maturity. Compare this to the two above and see how the spots on those are much greener or paler.

The reason why I decided to see if further harvesting was needed. The stalk on this little pumpkin rotted off at the main branch stem and it shrivelled up by itself. Too much rain can do this. Notice how the spots are still light green and the base of the stalk is green. It will ripen slower than the mature one above and the flavour may not be as good, as it was parted from it's parent plant early, but it's quite edible.

Pumpkin Hunt :).
Search and you will find!

These 3 were in a shady spot under a pile of farmer's friends, stinging nettles, some other prickly obnoxious weed, bracken and the ever present kikuyu. As they were shadowed, and the maturing rate wasn't rushed along by the hot sunny days we've had here of late, they grew to quite a large size. I'll have to weigh them but from carrying them around I'd say they were about 3kg each.
I've been harvesting dressed in  either tracky pants or jeans, long sleeved shirt and my knee high rubber boots and often a hat to keep my head shaded and give something else for any spiders in the long grass to alight on as I bend over to collect pumpkins.
As I've had a request for the pumpkin scone recipe I thought I'd post it, and any other pumpkin recipes I use to diminish some of
this harvest, in the recipes pages as I make them. Link in the sidebar.

Cheers,
Robyn xo

An Upside of Autumn

I've always loved Autumn, nearly as much as I love Spring. Both seasons are full of bright colours, but for different reasons. One of Autumn's bright colours is the yummy orange of home grown pumpkin. I had some JAP, also known as Kent, pumpkins germinate in my compost pile so I transplanted them to the paddock and they thrived. Technically JAP's are squash and are supposedly evolved from the Japanese squash  cucurbita moschata but there's also a story of them originally sprouting on a USA farmer's property and when he was asked what they were he replied "Just Another Pumpkin" and they've been known by the acronym ever since. Nice little story. However, I'm not politically correct and if we do have the Japanese to thank for this versatile vegetable I have no problem with honouring them for it's origin by call it a JAP or Japanese pumpkin as it's my favourite :D.

Whatever the origins they are very popular in Australia and are used for everything from soups to pies, as a roast vegetable and in various types of bread.  I've harvested 10 but I gave the two smallest ones to my parents and there's at least another dozen maturing on the vines. There's a 20c piece on one of the pumpkins at the back to give an idea of size. The cut one is the first of the harvest after a few weeks of drying off. I've already made a big pot of pumpkin soup and there's a roasted pumpkin and lentil salad I want to try as well as 2 different types of pie and of course some pumpkin scones. It wouldn't be Australia without pumpkin scones!

I always save the seeds as what better way to keep producing them than to save seeds acclimatised to the growing conditions here.

Hoping that southern hemisphere people are looking forward to lots of warm tasty pumpkin treats as the weather becomes colder.

Cheers,
Robyn xo