Author Topic: Stryrian Pumpkins  (Read 3199 times)

Digeroo

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Stryrian Pumpkins
« on: September 05, 2020, 12:32:02 »
I dropped some pumpkin seeds (packet from Lidl) on the floor and rather than waste them all, I put some to germinate in kitchen roll.  Quite a few rotted but enough grew.   And I learned to move any that showed a root asap, or they all rot off.  I hoped they would be grown in a field of naked pumpkins so would come up true.
Wind on a few months and I now have pumpkins.  I have picked one.  So now what do I do?
I cut it open, the skin was very hard and I have cut quite a few seeds in half, but I have pumpkins seeds.  Success!!, Naked, no shell.  I cut the pumpkin in half, how do I open it without cutting some of the seeds?   
Do I dry them in the sun?  They are bigger than I expected but i suppose they shrink a bit as they dry.
Separating the seeds out of the mush is not easy.  Any tips would be welcome.
Taste good, though currently a bit slippery and slimy.

Jeannine

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2020, 23:58:37 »
They are nicer baked and slightly salted, also let  them mature a bit before you open them.Sometimes dropping them will break them open.
When God blesses you with a multitude of seeds double  the blessing by sharing your  seeds with other folks.

Digeroo

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2020, 13:34:31 »
I will give it a whirl.  Need to find something solid to drop it on.  They are very hard.
The seeds are very nice when they come straight out of the pumpkin.  They are much more juicy then the drier shop bought ones.  So I am beginning to think that leaving them in the pumpkin until I want them might be good.   
I bake pumpkin seeds with shells.  But the shell-less ones do not need baking they are delicious as they are.   

galina

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2020, 07:16:51 »
Some squash, for example Early Straightneck dry out so comprehensively that only the outer shell is left.  When you shake it, the seeds rattle inside.  They come out without much residue at all and what there is is dry and flaky and can be blown off.  Now it is worth keeping some Styrians over winter to see whether they also have this trait.  Would make the seed harvest very easy.  :wave:

Vinlander

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2020, 13:29:41 »
Generally all pumpkins are difficult to open when they are properly ripe - that used to make them immune to birds - but a friend of mine had his pumpkins ruined by ring necked cockatoos. Anything they go for looks like it has been hit by an axe...

Anyway if you actually want to eat the flesh* then dropping them isn't a great idea - (though I admit Digeroo's idea is a brilliant one because if you gradually increase the height until it just cracks then that should be the height that cracks all of them).

I use one of those chinese choppers with a thin wide blade - they look like a huge kitchen knife that's lost the pointy half. The ones with the metal handle in one piece with the blade seem to have the thinnest blade (about 1mm) for easy piercing plus a wide blade for stiffness (about 80mm).

You put it in place then hit the blade with something wooden the same size & weight as a rolling pin - but don't use your rolling pin!

Then continue the cut about 5-10mm deep all the way round - this gets you through the hard skin, and any strong knife/axe/hand mattock/onion hoe can be used to lever the halves apart.

I know there are many obvious ways to clean pumpkin seed but I (and many other people) start by separating the individual seeds from their sticky stringy bed. Once they out they are just slippery seeds & it's time to spread them out to dry. When dry they look like they are in individual cellophane bags and if you squeeze the bag the seed should pop out clean. You may need to adjust the force to suit the more brittle hull-less ones but I've had success in the past by picking at the edge of the seed to make a hole in the 'bag', then just rubbing it. Unfortunately these easy seeds never taste as good as what's inside a normal seed (so far I've tried 5 types, including the ones from the shops - mostly Chinese - but never one labelled ?convincingly? as Styrian).

*I don't like pumpkin cooked, and in my opinion the kinds of pumpkins that produce hull-less seeds have flesh that's even blander than giant pumpkins, but it can still be used raw for texture in coleslaw (a more tender orange shred than carrots - people with few teeth particularly enjoy my pumpkin and chinese cabbage recipe), and it's OK in kimchi and stews to bulk them out.

Cheers.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

galina

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2020, 13:39:14 »
Unfortunately Styrian Oil pumpkins are cucurbita pepo and the cellophane thing is more pertinent to cucurbita maxima.  But spreading, drying and then rubbing the seeds out maybe with a cloth or a towel, is a good idea.  :wave:

Vinlander

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2020, 16:18:31 »
Thanks Galina - I always assumed that I've grown so many types of squash over the years that every species would be in there somewhere.

However the 3 key things I grow for are Flavour, Flavour, and of course Flavour. I do care about yield a bit because I've found that if you get no squash of a variety then that variety has no flavour at all...

I checked out all the ones I've enjoyed enough to keep growing for the last 40 years, Blue Kiri, Blue Banana, Turk's Cap, Crown Prince, Galeux D'Eysines... They are all C.maxima, and so the many others that have hybridised on my plot to make something I like (eg. my "Green Turban") will probably be the same species.

So I don't grow C.pepo - why?

Maybe I've unwittingly ruled out hull-less types because C.pepo is intrinsically flavourless (to me).

Apart from the 5 hull-less ones I've tried, I do remember trying 'Delicata' types about 20 years ago, but I gave up on them after deciding that their main flavour wasn't squash but sugar. I don't see the point of growing sugar - it comes in a bag.

A squash that tasted like honey would be different - Galeux D'Eysines comes closest for me (but don't believe the seedsmen who say it does well in England - they probably aren't selling the real deal, and you won't find out anyway unless you mollycoddle them or we have another 2018).

Don't get me started on sugar-enhanced corn - it should be called flavour-reduced corn (and the supersweet types are totally superbland - does anyone over 12 think that sugar cubes are actually delicious?).

Anyway I'll be looking for the other species from now on - it's become a much more interesting subject.

Cheers.

PS. The malabar/figleaf types (C.ficifolia) have even less flavour in the flesh but their seeds are OK. They have other uses - sheer vigour makes them a good rootstock for cucumbers - in a bad year your grafted cucs will crop for an extra month, but in a good year there's no difference - and sadly I'm always short of time for fiddly jobs in Spring.

With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

ACE

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2020, 16:31:24 »
I grew some football sized pumpkins this year. Tough skins, but they cut with the cleaver. They fit in well with my T2D diet and we have just discovered pumpkin mash instead of spuds. Surprisingly it is very nice, I call most of these internet recipes Hippy food because they are often written by a 'mother earth' type with a long haired soap dodger as a partner. Also any meal that does not include a meat pie is 'hippy food'

galina

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #8 on: October 01, 2020, 06:56:32 »
I agree Vinlander, the maximas are the best flavoured and long storing too.  This year Buttercup and Oregon Homestead aka Sweet Meat.  However the most flavourful pepos are the acorns.  There is a lot going for Thelma Sanders's potato squash for example.  The ficifolia are all about texture.  Those shreds give a great mouth feel in soup and in marmalade the flavour comes from the added ingredients, like a curry, soup, stew etc.  And they store for two years.  :wave:

Vinlander

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2020, 12:54:54 »
I forgot about the excellent flavour of butternuts - C.moschata.

I've put off growing them because of their reputation of liking better summers than we usually have, but I bought one recently (so my mum could try my "tenderslaw" {let's see how long it takes that one to crop up in marketing - though it may already be} I make from shredded pumpkin and chopped chinese cabbage).

I'll try growing some next year - "Waltham" sounds promising.

Cheers.

PS. I'm also interested in C.argyrosperma (cushaw or pepita) because its seeds are said to have excellent flavour. It's supposed to be even fussier than butternuts but I've developed a liking for planting tricky squash in the least sunny corner of my polytunnel and leading them out onto the N-facing part of the roof where they can easily grow into the sun without massively shading the other plants inside...
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

The simple/complex split is more & more important: Simple fertilisers Poor, complex ones Good. Simple (old) poisons predictable, others (new) the opposite.

Digeroo

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #10 on: October 02, 2020, 13:23:55 »
When it come to C. Moschata, I am a big fan of Tromba d'Albenga.  They grow well.  I have lots of fruits this year.  And the skins are not so hard as the butternuts. Seeds all at one end so lots of meat.   I  have also grown Long of Naples and have eight huge fruits.  I have grown the Delicata this year and they have been very disappointing only one or two small fruits per plant. 
The surprise this year is the Blue Hubbard, two are huge.  They are reputed have have the best flavour.. 
I have made a discovery and that is they like bonfire ash.  I cleared an allotment of nettles and thistles and burned it.  There was quite a pile of ash quite a lot of the red pot ash.  Then I put two Tromba beside it.  The have gone mad.  The plants are huge.  So I started spreading the ash around.   
I am a fan of Earlybird sweetcorn, my daughter says it is the best ever flavour.  I never seem to get more than one fruit per plant but the one is very good indeed.
The rats have got at one of my Stryian pumpkins.  I need to get them inside.

saddad

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Re: Stryrian Pumpkins
« Reply #11 on: October 03, 2020, 14:15:11 »
As I have a large communal bonfire for our twelve acre site every year I will bear that in mind!

 

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