Early in October, a young friend gave me this amazing 36-pound pumpkin, and this lovely Hubbard squash. The teacup is there for scale; a teacup is usually sitting around somewhere nearby in my kitchen or dining room, and it makes a hand prop for photos.
My husband used a machete to cut the pumpkin into quarters, out on the wood chopping block. I baked two quarters at a time, in two 9x13 pans. I scraped the cooked squash away from the rind while my husband operated the Foley food mill, seen on the right. We sure trashed the kitchen!
The puree from the pumpkin nearly filled my big bread bowl. It was getting late and I was getting tired, so my husband carried it out to my car to stay cool overnight (the temperature was in the 30s). The next day I carried it back indoors in three smaller batches, and measured it into freezer boxes. Unless I lost count, I ended up with 36 cups of pumpkin puree from that one pumpkin. I foresee an ample supply of pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin cookies this winter.
I also baked the Hubbard squash, and my husband ran that through the food mill as well. It yielded about 9-10 cups of puree, which I will use just like pumpkin in assorted baked goods. We'll probably eat some of it as a side dish, thawed and heated in a kettle or in the oven.
More recently, that same friend gave me another Hubbard squash. This one weighs 27 pounds! I have stored it in our "above-ground root cellar" (something my husband rigged up in the garage) and plan to deal with it later. I believe I will dice some of this one and freeze it that way, rather than puree the entire vegetable.
I see the same teacup got into this photo as the first photo. It's one of my favorite teacups, so I'm not surprised.
Since we only planted potatoes and zucchini this summer, I am especially pleased to have received these gifts from a fellow gardener!
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