Tuesday 30 August 2011

Pumpkin picked

The after work gardener, Tuesday 30 August

It's picked!  I couldn't wait any longer, and I'm not actually sure it's ripe.  However, all will be revealed when I begin tonight's cooking spree of pumpkin soup and roast pumpkin risotto.  Comparing the size of me, and the size of it I'm reckoning on a week's worth of food which will make a welcome change from the endless, now slightly leggy, runner beans.  Although if it is rotten inside, then bean risotto it is - again!

The reason for this early harvest happened yesterday when I came back from 3 days away and saw that the entire skin of the pumpkin (as you can kind of see in the photo) had gone all scabby and scaly.  I've had a quick look on the internet and it looks like Oedema which is a disorder that causes the skin of pumpkins to get cracked and scaly due to excess moisture stress.  It's definitely been changeable weather in London recently from cold and rainy to warm and sunny, so I'm guessing it's similar to when I get cracked hands from gardening in the cold and wet.  However, I'm clearly no botanist, so if anyone is able to let me know anything different, I'd be very grateful. 

Hopefully under its not-so-ripe, scabby outer shell, there is a rich orange tasty flesh, ripe and ready for cooking.


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