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  • From: SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Canned pumpkin
  • Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:01:33 -0400

Lisa K.V. Perry wrote:
....Bought more quart canning jars and 4x the number of lids today after goingto a nearby pumpkin farm for a hay ride outing with our live-in individual
and our local group of foster care providers and live-in individuals. Oh, we
had fun! Four of us attended so we came home with four more big pumpkins (to
be canned), they were included in the price of admission. Will put my food
strainer with pumpkin screen to the test in the next few weeks.
Maybe you already know it, but if you screen/mash/otherwise mush your pumpkin it then needs to be frozen. It's considered too dense to safely be canned. I generally can most of mine in chunks, then when I use it, drain the chunks and mash, usually with the potato masher, as it's the easiest-to-clean mashing tool I have for small batches. The chunks I make the right size for soup/stews and they are ready to go. I usually put up a few jars of shredded pump/squash, and that I drain and use in pancakes or breads just like I would zucchini .The water they were canned in goes into the next soup, usually, or saved for later. Sometimes if I open several at a time, I boil the water down quite a bit and freeze or can that until I need it.

Recently, though, since I'm by myself, I dry more and more things, including pumpkin/squash. Then I vacuum seal the dried product in jars. Not only easier to work in small batches, but takes less juice to do it, is easy to rehydrate, and takes much less storage space. I'm working on getting my living space, including storage, down under 500sf :-) .

Susan Jane, in Maine




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