Market Farming

["Rob Johnston" <rjohnston AT johnnyseeds.com>]

        Interesting discussion on Pumpkin -- or is it squash?? -- pie.

        For decades, the biggest brand of canned "pumpkin" and "squash" in New
England was "ONE PIE."  The cannery used to be in Waldoboro, Maine, about an
hour southeast of Albion, and they contracted their acreage mostly in that
region of Maine because they paid so little that the trucking distance
substantially determined the economics for the growers.

        Anyway, they put out two products, "Squash" and "Pumpkin," with 
somewhat
different pie recipes on the respective can labels.  The Squash recipe was a
little less sweet and spicy than the Pumpkin.  What they put in the cans was
all the same, a Cucurbita maxima squash -- or "pumpkin" if you prefer --
called Golden Delicious.  They used Golden Delicious because it was
reasonably good quality (well, for sweetened and spiced pie filling,
anyway), yielded nice tonnage, and small pieces of the orange skin didn't
show up in the canned product.

        The best quality small jack-o-lantern style pumpkin for pies is Baby 
Pam,
because the flesh is sweeter, starchier, less stringy, and deeper orange
than others.  New England Pie, synonym Small Sugar, can be good, but isn't
as dependably good.  However, retail growers sometimes prefer NEP because
the fruits are more varied in size and shape, making a more interesting
display.

        Johnny's never sold Golden Delicious, because it was/is a processing
variety, where fresh market is our focus.

        Somebody mentioned using C.moschata varieties where squash vine 
borers are
a threat, which is good advice.

Happy October,
 Rob Johnston
 Johnny's Selected Seeds