It has been a pretty ordinary growing season in my neck of the woods. Below average rainfall with weird below average temperatures. Not much grew well, especially the pumpkins, zucchini, and squash.
I had these three vegetables growing in one of the two front yard garden beds and rotated it from the other bed they were in last year.
As always, the zucchini were prolific and these six got away from me. I don’t think I will plant zucchini in the front yard next year because I only visit it once a week and didn’t pick the smaller ones as often as I should. These will be cut up and frozen into chunks or shredded for stews and soups during the winter.
I planted Australian Butter Pumpkin and Queensland Blue, but the Qld Blue didn’t produce a single pumpkin. I harvested four Aussie Butter Pumpkins of 6 plants. A pretty dismal effort. You can tell that they are ripe when they turn this orange colour and the stem looks wrinkled.
From a plant that Jessie (aka Rabid Little Hippy) gifted me, this random squash grew. I harvested 2 of these. The vine for this squash was the most prolific of all the pumpkin vines and basically went feral through that part of the yard.
Jessie, if you know what these are, please leave a comment letting me and the readers know the variety. It is a nice looking squash but I would like to know what I am eating before I cut it open!
So unlike the 17 pumpkins I harvested last year, this years crop was nothing to write home about. Mind you, all of these gifts from nature are welcome in our house. We will put them all to good use and eat them over the colder months.
I am looking forward to roast pumpkin with skin on, Pumpkin and Chorizo Risotto, Pumpkin Soup, to name a few. And not to mention all the Zucchini in Minestrone and pasta sauces as well.
Now that I mention it, I feel blessed to have reaped a tidy harvest. I have to remember to be grateful for what my garden provided. I still won’t have to buy any pumpkins over the winter. We will just make do.
How did your pumpkin crop pan out? Was it a bumper one, or on the smallish size like mine?