Pumpkins

Throw a pumpkin on a concrete path it usually breaks open and is the easy to cut up. Cook pumpkin whole in micro 10mins each side for medium ones. - Jan King, Whangarei.
Pumpkins freeze well. Cut into meal sized pieces, clean the pulp from the centres and freeze in plastic bags. Do not thaw before using. Straight into the water or roasting dish for cooking. Alternatively, pulp the pumpkins – freeze in ice cream containers, and use for soup or jam as the time permits – G.B.

Growing pumkin

Did you know the world's largest pumpkin (821kg, grown in 2010 and entered in the Ginness Book of Records) was grown in Wisconsin, USA. The winner said his secret is a precise mixture of sunshine, rain, cow manure, fish emulsion and seaweed.
The New Zealand record was set by the Barton family from Parua Bay (Whangarei) with a 721kg whopper. That smashed the previous record of 540kg by a grower in Taupo, and is only 100kg from the world record of 821kg grown Wisconsin, USA. We have no doubt it won’t be too many years before we see a New Zealand grower as the giant pumpkin world champ.

Interested in growing giant pumpkins? Here's an excellent site www.giantpumpkins.co.nz

Well the secret formulas behind the largest pumpkin storoes says it all - lots of horse poo, fish fertiliser and seaweed.
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Pumpkin recipes

My daughter in law served this pumpkin pie dish with a barbecue when we were last in Cape Town but her kids eat it for pudding. This recipe serves 12. Ingredients: 4 cups cooked pumpkin/butternut, 1 cup flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder, a pinch of salt, half a cop of sugar, 3 to 4 eggs (beaten), a sprinkle of cinnamon. Cook & mash the pumpkin/butternut. Sift in the flour, baking powder & salt. Add the sugar & beaten eggs. Pour into pie dish, sprinkle cinnamon on top. Bake at 180C until edges pull away from pie dish (which will be about an hour). DF, Whakatane.
Pumpkin muffins. To make pumpkin muffins you will need 2 cups of flour, 1½ cups of sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 egg, ¾ cup milk, ¼ cup cooking oil, ½ cup cooked and mashed pumpkin, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon and ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg. Mix all of the dry ingredients together, and the pumpkin, milk, oil and egg into another mix. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients mix and add the wet mixture. Stir to form a batter then place a large spoonful of the batter into a greased muffin pan. Bake at 200C for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. This mix makes about 10 muffins. - KJ, Wellington.
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