The Cucuzzi Calamity

Are very young pumpkins edible?? I have read several hits on the Internet on the subject, and have not found anyone writing about eating the young fruit. Does anyone out there know?? They look so tender and succulent.


I know there are gourds that can be eaten when they are small. An example is cucuzzi, the edible gourd. If they get too old they have to be used as gourds, but I have read that the small ones may be prepared the same way we prepare zucchini squash. Aren't they all pretty much the same family: squashes, pumpkins, gourds? Everything I know about them I learned from Pomona and her blog, Tulips in the Woods.

And, now, it is time to confess my calamity. Pomona gave me some seeds last summer. I knew I didn't have enough growing season left before frost, so I saved the seeds until this spring. They and many other seeds and cuttings were worked up in my potting/planting frenzy. I even made notes about what was in which pots. Labels would have been better, but I had forgotten to buy any.

The time to travel to another state to attend the celebration of high school graduation for one of our grandsons came rapidly. I so prized those cucuzzi seeds that I decided to take them with me so I could give them close attention and care (not too dry, not too wet). I consulted my notes: 6-cell, brown, white handle, in plastic bag cover (to maintain humidity).

I traveled with that cell pack between my feet and attended to it more than once a day. Nothing was happening. We traveled back home. Same story. Home again I noticed little sprouts emerging. I watched and waited. Then realized they were 4 o'clocks! I had carried the wrong one!

I looked around. Where were the cucuzzis?! There behind me on the bottom shelf, out of the sun, was a brown plastic 6-cell pack with white handle and in a plastic bag cover. My spirits slumped.

This is the way I felt.

I pulled it out and saw that they had sprouted and tried to grow inside the wretched plastic bag -- and were now dead! All my conscientious time and trouble were for naught! What a blow!! I will quit mentally whipping me eventually.

The scene of the crime, 2009.

In the photo above, down past midway of left side there is a narrow strip of white. Just above it are the few shelves below a small, old, black computer desk - a yard sale find. That's where I found the cucuzzi carefully tucked in among some cuttings in bright light out of the sun.

Easier to see in this older photo below.

The messiest work area in the world!

Husband/Best Friend/Chief Photographer calls it my play area/potting shed, and my toys. It is really the large doorway into the garage, and the cars have to sit out on the driveway. No fun when there is ice and snow. I frequently feel sorry for him, being married to me.

A working garden causes our driveway to always be in a state of messiness, years and years of tarp covered compost, sand, and other piles. Even I get tired of it.

I REALLY do need a barn!

You would never believe it, but this is organized clutter. There is a rhyme and reason to the arrangement.

There is even a clear path! (Barely) It's a wonder I am still married! That is the Garden Door, and the steps up to the kitchen door.In spite of the clutter and disarray, I have sold a few plants on our local Craig's List.

Here is a nice starter pack of Gold Moss (Sedum acre).

But, there are only so many buyers for Gold Moss. It has been here a while. It has already bloomed and has gone seedy. I have read that each tiny leaf will sprout and make a new plant. There is enough here to make a very good spread.

You can see that I do tend to spread out everywhere.
Such as the backdoor steps.

And, in spite of the chaos, I have to admit: It is more fun every year.

And, now, what was the original subject and question?... Oh, yes. Are very young pumpkins eatable?

Yep..........

Yep.... they are pumpkins! It's a pumpkin patch, Charlie Brown, no doubt about it now! Makes me think of Harry Potter, too; you know: the pitchers of pumpkin juice on the dining tables.


When it came up this year, there were two seedlings up against each other. I pulled the weaker one, so this one really took off and grew, even though it is cheek-to-jowl with the Anise Hyssop,...
(Seen below to the right of blossoms -- you may need to click on photo and enlarge to be able to see the blue flowers on the Hyssop. Butterflies love it.)

and white half-runner string beans are growing all over it,

(Notice in the right upper quadrant, Black-eyed Susans down the path in the distance.)

(The first harvest in a large bowl.)

and my seed radishes are trying to bloom up through it.

(Good thing I still have a bumper crop of seeds left from last year.)

On her blog Suzanne McMinn gives a recipe for stuffing and frying the big beautiful yellow blossoms, as well as, those of squash. By not doing so, I suppose I am letting food go to waste, but we do not eat much fried food anymore. I may try it just once to experience how they taste. I could use the female flowers, too, as I do not want any more pumpkins. However, in spite of all my snipping and pruning, one got past me. (I wonder if young pumpkins are edible?)

If more pumpkins are wanted, use the male flowers, for only a few are needed to pollinate the females. If no more pumpkins are wanted, use the female flowers, as well. Suzanne tells how to prepare them for cooking.

Can you believe so much is growing in the small space of one Japanese tomato ring?! It sits atop where a tree used to be. Over the years the tree's remains have rotted and other plants almost jump into it, because they love it so. And with so much rain it is not unusual to see toadstools growing along the root runs. Too bad they are not edible, too, but I wouldn't touch them, much less, eat them!

Not growing tomatoes this year. After three years, it was time to give that area of soil a rest from tomatoes, and their cousins, and potential diseases. Seems to have been well timed.

Earlier this week, in our local newspaper there is an article about the potato-famine fungus showing up in the Eastern United States including Kentucky. It is the same one that caused the Irish potato famine of the late 1840's. In this area it is showing up on tomatoes. Oh, NO! Not tomatoes!! Sorry, but, "Yes". At risk are plants of that family (Night Shade family): potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc., even weeds such as bittersweet nightshade.

This year weather conditions have been conducive to the growth of Phytophthora infestans. Phytophthora is Latin for "plant destroyer", and this plant destroyer likes cool, wet weather, exactly what our autumn, winter, spring and summer have been.

Photos posted by Cornell University to help gardeners recognize the disease are found here. Bittersweet nightshade is the last photo low on the page. I do not have that nightshade, but I do have horse nettle and a few others that are susceptible to becoming hosts. Good luck with yours!

I Want My Yard Back

This is the third year in a row that this has happened! I am getting more than a little tired of it.


Three years ago we took the local grandchildren to an apple orchard and besides apples we bought pumpkins: large ones and small miniatures, too. I told the children when their pumpkins began to go bad I wanted them for my composter. And, so we did. However, I decided to cut the pumpkins so the birds could reach the seeds and eat them.

The following spring here came pumpkin vines. The fruit was small so we had miniatures again. I repeated the process. Come spring AGAIN, (second spring) up came another vine. I did not write about it because Aunt Debbi wrote a fun post about hers that did the same thing. But, that was two summers we had to walk around a huge sprawling vine. They are fun to watch grow, but it was getting tiresome.

This spring (third spring) here came another vine. I do not remember the children giving me another pumpkin, but I guess they did. Here is what happened.

This spring one vine grew. OK, we thought, here comes another miniature pumpkin vine. "Miniature pumpkins" grew and grew. Obviously they were not miniature pumpkins. One of my helpers thought they were watermelons. So, I sent a message around to family members near and far that this year the pumpkins were watermelons.


Several days later, another helper looked at them and commented on the large size of the stems. He thought they were pumpkins. It wasn't long before the largest started turning orange.


Message sent around to family: The watermelons are pumpkins again.


When I was looking through some photographs from last year, I found the following missing link, and the mystery is solved!

I don't remember a crisis, but you know what Esther wrote about Americans and pumpkins.

(If you go there, be sure to read the comments below her story.)

Flashbacks---Frost On the Pumpkins Tonight

November 24, 2003

Don't forget your coat and cap!

Last night the north wind blew in a cold front. Today is a pretty, sunny day - but cold. Feels like Thanksgiving.

My memory keeps "hearing" Mammaw Bennett say, "There'll be frost on the pumpkins tonight."

November 25, 2003

Husband/Best Friend is back, ok. He and others from his Sunday School class were helping the church deliver Thanksgiving baskets this morning. Brrrrrr!

Dividends?

Apparently I garden to feed wildlife. The whole place is a smorgasbord. Plus, it is fun to feed the birds additional food, and watch their cute selves up close. Feeding them purchased birdseed is one thing, but it does not stop with that. I am grateful that Nature pitches in with extra help sometimes, though I suspect she is using me.

When the Funny Feeder was put back into operation during the winter, filled with black sunflower seeds, the rowdy critters wasted a lot of it by knocking seeds onto the ground. I thought the squirrels, chipmunks, and doves were cleaning it up and being efficient, but look what happened.

Following photos are after the peak of bloom,
and, after they had been thinned some.

The Gold Finches hung upside down, hidden, as they clung to the flowers while they cleared away all the young seeds; it took only two or three days - if that long. I thought there were still seeds there, until Local Son showed me they were gone! All of that mess has been cleaned up now, and the feeder post has been made plumb.

Last year we took the local grandchildren out to an apple orchard where they could also select pumpkins for autumn decoration. They each chose one large pumpkin, then they wanted a few of the miniature ones that are about the size of a grapefruit. That was fun, and they placed them on their front porch for autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. I told them when the pumpkins begin to go bad, I wanted them for my composter.

Then we enjoyed Thanksgiving Dinner at their house a few weeks later. As soon as dessert was served, one piped up and said, "You can take the pumpkins home with you when you leave. Thanksgiving is over and it's time to put out the Christmas things." I nearly fell off my chair laughing, we hadn't even left the table... but that is what we did.

When I have melons, winter squashes, or pumpkins, I like to remove the seeds and put them out somewhere for the Cardinals. The small pumpkins were so little, I just cut them open and set them on the ground around the Japanese tomato ring and let the Cardinals serve themselves.

Japanese Tomato Ring before the little pumpkins were placed.

This spring a very healthy pumpkin vine appeared. As soon as the first fruit was good and ripe, something ate it. The vine was rampant and ranging: it made eighteen little pumpkins. They were lovely little bright orange orbs.

Returning home one day, I came upon the scene of a massacre. Something had struck again and eaten five more.

It was either: Bandit,


OR... Scamper



OR... Grundoon
(I once pointed out a groundhog wandering in our back yard to our visiting four year old grandchild. Then I said, "Its name is Grundoon." The child said: "How do you know?")



OR... Pogo


...probably aided and abetted by... Alvin.

We gathered up the remaining twelve little pumpkins and brought them into the garage out of reach of the critters. We had purchased three small pumpkins, and this autumn we have twelve, plenty of seeds for next year, plus six were enjoyed by marauding wildlife. Seems to be a pretty good return on that investment; or, another way to look at it would be: That was an example of working with nature, and the benefits therefrom.