GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Pumpkins

Adam Funk[_3_] · 25-07-2011, 08:26 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On 2011-07-25, wrote:

In article ,
Mike Lyle wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:29:43 +0100, Adam Funk
wrote:

I've never had any trouble carving them for decoration or cutting them
for cooking with a normal kitchen knife. I've never heard of anyone
having to use an axe.

Then your punkins weren't the real Aussie deal. But pray allow for a
little colonial poetic licence. In pumpkin-eating cultures, though,
they do mature in store, where they lose quite a bit of their water
content and intensify their flavour. You wouldn't want one of those to
fall on your head.

Pumpkins, per se, are a very odd form of Cucurbita pepo, and are
both soft and insipid. Queensland Blue squashes are a form of
C. maxima, and get MUCH harder even in the UK, and taste better
(but not as good as the best C. maxima). I could only JUST get
in using my strongest knife (which has a large handle and is very
sharp), and my wife would have had to use an axe.

Aha, that's interesting. I guess C. maxima look & taste more like
C. pepo "pumpkin" than the other C. pepo varieties do?