Pumpkin vs Squash

The issue of Squashes and Pumpkins and which is what causes problems in the otherwise heavenly, perfect marriage of the Gaults. I get it wrong all the time and Andrew is, quite frankly, fed up and worse than that - he is now confused. As we all know Andrew does know his stuff, I am the mere student, so when I annoy him so much that he gets confuddled you know it's bad!

So in an attempt to recreate the harmony in the household I have looked up a few references to discover what the big mystery is..........

What I am so happy to tell you, is I am not alone!! The two are constantly being confused (yay!) due to the fact that 'the two terms have no exact botanical defination' (1). Happy me. Both they and the Gourd are members of the 'Cucurbita' family, the tricky bit comes from the existence of subgroups called pepo, maxima and moschata and differences in the stems.

Cucurbita Pepo
This my friends is the true Halloween scary Pumpkin. A real 'true' Pumpkin. They have hard orange skin that's great for carving and woody deeply ribbed stems. Confusingly this subgroup also includes some marrows, squashes, gourds and courgettes but lets not complicate things.

Cucurbita Maxima
This species 'also contains varieties that produce pumpkin-like fruit but the skin is usually more yellow than orange and the stems are soft and spongy or corky, without ridges and without an enlargement next to the fruit'. Hahaa - I maybe going mad but there are also known varieties in this group that are listed as Pumpkins but aren't really.

Cucurbita Moschata
Now thankfully these ones are easier to identify as they are generally speaking, oblong in shape and less orangy, more tan coloured, think Butternut Squash. 'The stems are deeply ridged and enlarged next to the fruit' in this case. But can you believe it - in your cans of  'Pumpkin' you will be shocked and feel cheated to learn that you are actually buying a 'moschata'. Oh for shame!!!
(Though if you are buying canned Pumpkin then I think you deserve a lie - grow your own!)

This is cute ~ 'Generally speaking a pumpkin is something you carve, a squash is something you cook and a gourd is something you look at'.

*Most of this info and quotes have come from a fabulous website called Aggie Horticulture - thank you
*The first quote comes from Vegetable Expert

Hugs - I'm off to look at Pinterest for interesting Pumpkin carvings - you can check out what I find here

Blogging deliquent/ the prodigal daughter returns, with tales of pumpkins

Humbly I slink back to my laptop and actually click on my own blog to write a post instead of just reading all yours. I have been neglectful I know but I am here now to try and rectify that even though it is so NOISY OUTSIDE I CAN BARELY HEAR MYSELF THINK!!!

First off I found this delightful little photo of the last flowers to be cut from the allotment. They are sitting here on top of a bookcase which has a window on either side = lovely soft light streaming in. They look almost as if they are in a mist. That was a great bunch of flowers :)

Then we move on to Pumpkin season and what a joy it was this year - we planted some and they grew! Last year's crop was very upsetting but this year was fab, although not massive fruits boy they were tasty. Here's a few little ones just finished ripening up on the window sill. We still have some bigger green ones outside to eat - yum. I'll get the names of the different varieties we grew off Andrew tonight and then I'll up date this little post. I'm pretty sure one was 'Little Dumpling' and another was a Japanese variety and yet another was something like Jack O'lantern. But the expert is off at work so we shall have to wait and see ;)

Andrew made the most amazing Pumpkin and Jerusalem Artichoke soup and also carved this year's Halloween Pumpkin all by himself. I have a couple of photos of it - it was rather impressive looking (proud wife). The neighbours did have lots of carved ones on the doorstep area but we don't know each other yet and they may have been slightly miffed at me taking photos -haha.

Unlike last year, when the Halloween pumpkin was carved by yours truly at the lottie with a dirty penknife on a dirty bench - this year we were able to keep the seeds and clean them off, roast them, sprinkle them with some spices and have a delicious healthy jar of yummy snacking seeds. Oh they are so moreish - we have both been having to rein ourselves in and not eat them as much as we want or they'd all be gone way before now. It's well worth the effort though - unless you save yours for planting, then....well I don't know if a spice coated, roasted seed produces a spicy roasted flavoured pumpkin but...;)

More soon - I have finally taken some photos of the living room and kitchen, though now that I look at them, the rooms have further evolved since Saturday, haha :)

Pumpkin carving and concussion

Halloween, what a day. Pity I can't remember the second half of it.

We did some errands in the morning and headed to the lottie at what we thought was 2pm but later released it was 1pm (Andrew was wearing a watch for a change and hadn't put it back the hour from last week!). We had been to Tesco* and got a pumpkin and a few packets of crisps and drinks etc and were ready for a Halloween/Autumn clear up day.

Andrew did the clear up bit, I on the other hand was too super excited to have my very first pumpkin to carve. When we were growing up all us N. Irish kids had to carve turnips for Halloween (HARD work) and not that enjoyable actually, no wonder I only did it a few times. You see, back then it was mighty difficult to get hold of a pumpkin here, this year we were surrounded by them. There is no way on this Earth that I would EVER carve (and waste) a pumpkin of this size had we grown it ourselves, but we didn't so I went at it with a swiss army knife and a lot of glee.

Half an hour later and pumpkin innards galore and this was the result - a pumpkin so scared of Halloween that it had puked all over the place. I was very proud.

It was raining off and on quite heavy and was cold but there was going to be a lottie gathering to celebrate the year and bbq's were lit (with blowtorches, haha, the weather was just not co-operating) so we wanted to hang around. Really, we couldn't be bothered digging and weeding etc so instead we gathered up a load of produce and had ourselves a Harvest bench celebration. Look at that bounty!! I'll talk more about what's there during the week and just how proud of our leeks I am.

Wendy (my best friend) came down to visit for the first time. Which was great.

'Really!' you say, 'the very first time?!'.

'Yes', I say, 'she is a super busy girl and rarely gets time to visit lotties'.

'That is sad', you say.

'I know.... ', I say (shakes head in pity).

We sat round the wood stove and had a good chat then went over to get a hot dog and listen to a bit of a sing-song at the BBQ area. It was fab, really fab. There was a great wee atmosphere even though few people had braved the weather, the sausages were cooked wonderfully (thank you Billy Dick) and the guitar was played perfectly by Ricky, even if he didn't know any of the words. Hahaha, we all just da da dee deee daa dee-ed our way along!

'The beast' - massive version of our wood stove - note full moon too!!!

Back at the shed it was time to gather up our harvest and poke around with our own stove; such heat - lovely. Fireworks began in the town and echoed around the lough and that was the end of the fun for Maggie, she hid in the shed, a pitiful sight poor thing, she really couldn't hide in a corner enough; it was time to go home. On the walk up to the car I got this great photo of Wendy and shortly after slipped and fell on some muck that's been churned up and re-seeded with grass. I've fallen here twice before, the soil has a lot of clay in it and it is very slidey. Well this time I supposedly hit the ground 'with a fair whack' according to Andrew and Wendy (I prefer to think it hit me, I'm the innocent party here!) and knocked myself out. Boy, the rest of the night is something of a mystery and yesterday my back was so painful I could barely walk. Still feeling concussed today and therefore confused and very tired but I'm fine. Great memories for Wendy on her first visit!


* may be evil ~ still to be confirmed