The Great Pumpkin rides again

It’s pumpkin pickin’ time and the great gourd awaits. — solyanka/Creative Commons

It’s pumpkin season and you can’t miss this fat-sided orange cucurbit, appearing now at every farm stand, nursery and supermarket. If you’re not already awash in jack-o-lantern material and need some direction, here’s one site that offers a county-by-county guide to fall pumpkin patches in New Jersey.

Of course, some dedicated do-it-yourselfers would prefer to pick their very own. It’s too late for this year but as they say in baseball, but there’s always next season. With a little attention and luck, you can produce a pumpkin of note right at home.

Fall is a great time to prepare a spot in the garden for next year’s must-have Halloween item. Allow at least 100 square feet in full sun for two or three plants -- a single vine can grow 25 feet or more, sometimes at the rate of 6 inches a day.

Pumpkins are heavy feeders. If you start a compost heap now on the site of your future pumpkin patch, you’ll have a good head start. Over the winter, choose and order your seed. Pumpkins range from petite to giant and produce standard orange or (for something different) white fruit.

You’ll want to plant late, between June 1 and 15, to avoid late frosts and premature ripening. A pumpkin ripe in August and rotted by late September is not a useful thing. The traditional way to grow pumpkins is on a mound of soil about 3 feet in diameter, surrounded by a shallow, 4-inch deep moat to retain water.

You can grow pumpkins in containers, too – if you are committed to strict regimen of watering and feeding. Choose a low-nitrogen fertilizer (50-100-100 is recommended) to favor fruit set over foliage production. One medium-sized variety or three miniatures can live in a large tub.

Inadequate pollination is the biggest pitfall for the home grower in the era of declining honeybee populations. You can help by hand-pollinating flowers, transferring pollen with a small paintbrush from male flowers, which appear atop long, thin stems, to female flowers, which sit right up against the vine and have a little button at the base.

To encourage a classic, rounded shape, adjust fruit about a month after it appears so the bottom is sitting squarely on the ground, ideally on a shingle or piece of board to prevent rot. Pumpkins are ready to harvest when the color has deepened and vines begin to wilt. Once decorated or carved, protect them from hard frosts for longest shelf life.

Punkin chunkin is a serious thing. — kittell/Creative Commons

You probably remember that mother said you shouldn’t play with your food. All bets are off when it comes to pumpkins, the playthings of the garden patch.

For starters, there are competitive growers hoping to set new giant pumpkin records with such jumbo varieties as ‘Big Moose,’ ‘Prizewinner’ and ‘Dill’s Atlantic Giant.”

The Guinness World Record for Heaviest Pumpkin is held by Mathias Willemijns of Belgium and his 2,624.6-pound pumpkin. In the US last year, the biggest whopper was grown by Alex Noel of Connecticut, who took top prize with a 2,294-pound behemoth. These are cucurbits that match the weight of a small sports car -- very Great Pumpkins indeed.

Then we have the folks who take pumpkins of 700 pounds or better, hollow them out and race the “cucurboats” in regattas. (Yes, pumpkins that size displace enough water to float.) There once was a pumpkin regatta held in New York’s Central Park but racing fever seems to have migrated to the Western states. The race if off this year due to the pandemic but you can watch a previous Ginormous Pumpkin Regatta at Daybreak, Utah here.

Finally, there is the whacked-out sport of “punkin chunkin.” This involves teams of engineering types and their cohorts hurling pumpkins for distance records with homemade air cannons, catapults, and centrifugal slings. Launched some 20 years ago, this has caught on as a spectator sport all across the country. Originally based in Bridegeville, Del., this competition is off this year.

Roasting your own pumpkin seeds is easy. — jaxzin/Creative Commons

Snack time

Everyone loves pumpkin seeds and by making your own, you can customize them to your taste. Besides, if you carve a jack-o'-lantern, you'll already have a serious mess of seeds, pulp and goo on your hands.

Turning those seeds into snacks is easy and straightforward. Here’s how:

Scoop seeds from pumpkin, discarding as much of the stringy stuff as possible. Soak seeds in a bowl of warm, salted water, which should make the seeds float and most of pulp sink. Spread cleaned seeds in a single layer on a baking pan or cookie sheet, and sprinkle generously with salt.

Bake at 350 degrees. Check after 20 minutes for doneness, cooling a seed and tasting. The nutmeat should be dry. If additional baking is required, check again at 5 minute intervals. Cool and serve.

You can use different seasonings, replacing salt with cheesy popcorn seasoning, taco flavoring or Cajun spices. Leftover seeds can be kept fresh in an airtight container or frozen for extended storage.