Jarrahdale blue pumpkin

Tonight was the night, the blue pumpkin was cut into.





The flesh smells slightly of watermelon. My first thought was cucumber, and then Mark said 'watermelon' and he was right. It tastes like a watermelon that had all of the sweet sucked out of it and just the fiber left. The flesh is thicker and harder than the Connecticut Field Pumpkins, and the seeds have to be dug out of the corners. The seeds are plump and seem to be full of meat (they are boiling and will bake later) and are a beautiful golden yellow color. All of these seeds came out of this one compact pumpkin. The cut in the surface and the slight 'mold' look to one spot on it had not affected the inside at all. Total it sat in the storage room for over a week between pulling it out of the garden and cutting it open.

After: The flesh was VERY dry.. may be good for processing into baked goods, but was not good at all for eating. The seeds seemed like they should have a lot of nut in them, and it can be very good, but it is smaller than it appears inside the husk and very hard to get out. I would need a nutcracker to get them out without tearing my fingernails up. I'm thinking this variety is not the one I need to grow next year, even though there was plenty of seed left to save some.

The Day after that: I'm a firm believer in trying something a few times. The cooked squash pieces improved greatly with being in the fridge for the night. I could eat one the next day for lunch with no trouble. I think the pairing of it with a plate of purple hulled peas (boiled, then salted) was part of making it so good, as well. The seeds are not an entire loss, either. The last pumpkin seeds peeled from top point down, and that method was NOT working on these seeds at all. I think I finally found a way that, although still slow, gets the entire meat out of this seed. It needs to be cracked at the bottom of the round, on the side, then peeled up towards the point. It sounds pitifully painstaking making this point at all - but if I had gotten the idea that the seeds may 'peel' differently I would not have tried to give up on them so quickly.

Overall: I give the pumpkin Jarrahdale a 7 out of 10, and may replant a plant of it next year.