[erdnuss]

This year I'm growing pumpkins. I'm hoping to learn how to make real homemade pumpkin pie with fresh garden pumpkins from my own yard! I sowed some seeds for a summer harvest so I can get some practice in before thanksgiving, and then in late summer I will sow more seeds for a fall harvest
I had one sprout 2 days ago and both leaves are 1" long and the sprout is almost 2 inches tall!

[erdnuss]

oh, and I also love eating pumkin seeds but I like them best when they are baked fresh at home rather than store bought seeds!

[KYHeirloomer]

Better watch your days to maturation on those pumpkins. Chances are a late summer planting will not have enough time for pumpkins to form and mature---especially not if you're talking jack-o-lantern types.

Even the smaller, sweet pumpkins, the kind you'd use for pie, have long growing seasons. Typically we're talking 80-110 days.

[pork receipe]

When you're talk about the pumpkins, this remind me of my hometown pumpkins pie...

Have you ever try the pumpkins jelly before? It's a dessert that cooked with the pumpkins and believed me, the taste is awesome!

[erdnuss]

that sounds good, I'll have to try that sometime!
I am growing 3 types of pumpkins. Jack-be-little (3 vines), sugar pumkins (currently 3 vines and a few more recently sprouted finally!, and 1 giant pumpkin.
The jack-be-littles and the giant are for fun while the sugar pumkins are for pumpkin puree for when it comes time for pumpkin pie making

[OregonYeti]

When I was in India, at least some of what was sold as catsup was actually highly spiced pumpkin puree. It wasn't catsup at all but it was really good.

I've heard (?) that people in the UK think Americans are crazy for making dessert out of a vegetable--pumpkin pie. But it's one of my favorites :^)

[tacotaco]

I do not grow crops to use in my cooking, but I do grow pumpkins just for the Halloween season. I like the satisfaction of giving my children the option of choosing from a fine selection, which pumpkin the wish to carve. Then I give away the remaining ones to their friends.

[KYHeirloomer]

Yeti, tomato, as the main ingredient for ketsup, is a relative newcomer.

Back in colonial days it was made from oysters, from walnuts, and from mushrooms. In Great Britain, at least, you can still find mushroom ketsup. Tomatoes didn't come into favor until the mid-19th century in most of the English-speaking world.

So, the fact that pumpkins were used in India doesn't surprise me. Their high sugar content makes them ideal for converting into a condiment.