"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 09:59:14 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:

Just read the BBC guide to growing pumpkins and they say to just keep a
couple per plant and grow them on until the outside is hard; pick before
the
first frost.

Now this does sound very much like growing marrows.

However with marrows you can cut them young and eat the whole thing - just
like eating courgettes.
snip
So can you do the same with pumpkins or are they inedible until they are
fully grown and bright orange?

They're still inedible even then. You put them on the roof to dry out
a bit. And they're still inedible. Not to mention dashed dangerous, as
you have to get into them with an axe, which few people these days
know how to use. In Aus, they used to panic around trying to find ways
of forcing pumpkins down us: the most bearable was pumpkin scones,
with lots of butter. Butternut are good, but I'd never even heard of
those till about 1973.

So has nobody ever tried to eat a pumpkin when it was yellow and about the
size of a tennis ball?
Given that our one plant seems to be producing plenty of fruit and according
to the script you are supposed to discard all but two I may experiment
unless I find any reference to them being actively harmful.

I understand what you say about edibility - IIRC the US famed pumpkin pie
just uses the liquidised flesh as a base for much more interesting flavours.
It might make a good base for soups etc. though.

Cheers

Dave R
--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

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