Cathy Isom fills you in about one of the best times to buy pumpkins is after Halloween, but what you buy depends on what you’re using that pumpkin for. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
November Pumpkin Picking
As we transition from Halloween to the countdown to Thanksgiving – only about 3 weeks away now – that time period is the best to purchase a pumpkin. According to Dave Horner of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service.
90-percent of the pumpkins in the United States for fresh market are sold in October. So, after Halloween they begin to disappear and prices, you can really buy them on sale and then they are really trying to get rid of them by then.
If you plan to buy a pumpkin soon from your local grocery store or farmer’s market, Horner says remember there’s a difference between pumpkins used for pie filling and puree for baking and those used for decoration.
What they call the pie pumpkins or the sugar pumpkins, there the small pumpkins. They cook better when you open them up they’re easier to clean out, they have less water, less stringy firmer flesh so they hold up better in your pies where the bigger pumpkins are more for decorating.
For cooking and baking, varieties, like the Baby Bear, which weights only about one to 2 pounds are a deep orange color and have thinner seeds taste delicious when roasted. Its miniature size and round shape allows for an alternative use as a bowl to serve soup, stews, and chili.
The other variety great for baking is the the New England Pie, which have a string-less, sugary flesh that is great to make a thick filling in pies.
There are several small to midsize heirloom varieties for decoration, including Valenciano, Jack be Little, and Queensland Blue.
Everyone ready for Pumpkin Pie?