Pumpkin Time

A couple weeks ago, we went to a craft fair in North Andros (the same day we visited Morgan's Bluff).  There were a lot of interesting things for sale there, and maybe one of these days I'll get around to blogging about the rest of it, but the best thing I found was in a small tent in the middle of the fair. A couple women were selling fruits and vegetables that had been grown on Andros:

There were selling everything from jalapenos to pomegranates, but what I walked off with was quite exciting for poor vegetable deprived me:

These beauties, a couple cucumbers, and a type of pumpkin I'd never seen before:

Over Halloween, I was disappointed that the only type of pumpkins they got were the jack o'lantern kind. They were also $12 a piece. I bought a couple when they were half price after the holiday to give pie making a try, but the result was pretty tasteless. The only other choice was canned pumpkins, which just aren't the same as sugar pumpkins. This pumpkin was only $3, and looked like it might taste pretty good.

Tonight, I finally got around to cooking it. I saved half of it to make a pie, but used the rest in soup:

I used a recipe I usually make with butternut squash (shockingly, there were leeks at the store today, a first for our time here), but it seemed like it was lacking something. The pumpkin had a different flavor, as expected, so I decided to throw in some nutmeg, too. I never would have thought nutmeg, garlic, and cheddar cheese would work, but it did.

After dinner, I picked through the guts and washed off the seeds. I spread them out to dry, and am hoping I'll be able to grow some of my own for this fall. I also saved a few of the green pepper seeds. I am already growing some from seeds I bought a few months ago, but I want to give them a try (assuming they weren't sprouted from a hybrid seed). Heirloom seeds from Andros would probably fare a lot better than seeds from another area. They have had time to develop resistances to the bugs and other things out here.

Stay tuned: the gardening saga will continue.