I have noticed over the past few years that the usual grey pumpkin you purchase from the supermarket/fruit vendors often lacks flavour and can be watery if steamed. 10 years ago I could confidently buy a pumpkin and know it would be full of flavour. What has happened?

I certainly would not waste my time or ingredients making pumpkin soup.

I now prefer to buy buttercup. I do not buy butternut, does this have flavour?

Has anyone else found this to be the case? Friends gave us a pumpkin they had grown, I left it a couple of months before cutting open and, yes, no flavour. Feel guilty but I am going to throw the rest away.

cheers Gran



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2021 04:44AM by gran.

Yes I agree. I was wondering if they are harvested to early as you do occasionally get a good one.

We had a self seeding one & it was really delicious. Instead of throwing it away why not add some spices to it, pumpkin can have such a great variety added & it really does enhance the flavours. Even a jar of spicy well flavoured jar of chutney or similar, chiili sauce etc. you may be plesently surprised.

I buy buttercup unless the supply has run out, although these days they bring them in from Pacific Islands when NZ supply has gone. If I have no choice, which is only maybe 2-3 times a year, I buy grey/crown pumpkin but, yes, only the very occasional one has any flavour. But I've considered them to have always been flavour poor compared to the buttercup. My mum, 50-60 years ago, would always buy buttercup if she could, rather than crown pumpkin because of the crown's lack of flavour. I don't buy butternut because it has no flavour and is too moist. Growing pumpkins/buttercup at home is very hit and miss for us - mostly miss - as we just don't have the right growing place for them. I need a paddock. I eat more than 30 buttercup a year - one of my favourite veg.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2021 07:16AM by J1.

Pumpkins do vary enormously over different varieties and growing conditions. The common grey pumpkins need to be mature or they will be watery and dull.

Keep an eye open for the less common varieties. We have grown two kinds which were wonderful, and they are occasionally for sale at farmers' markets. One is Bushfire, which is quite small and bright orange, with a lovely chesnutty flavour. The other is Marina di Chioggia, which is large (can be enormous) with a rough fluted dull green skin and lovely flavour, fine texture.

I only ever buy cut pumpkin, that way I can see the colour of the flesh, dark bright orange and they generally have lots of flavour and a good texture, but the majority are pale and will have no flavour... I do think they are often picked too early.
I do also buy Butternut, if the plan is to roast it, but not if mashing or souping, as I don't like the texture for those uses.

TPANDAV, do you buy the seeds for these pumpkins? We had 2 of the very large grey ones self seeded from our compost & and we left them for ages & they were beautiful. We don’t have a large garden area so they did overtake a bit but worth it.

We were given the seeds for Bushfire, but I have seen them for sale from various on-line vendors in NZ. We bought the seeds for the Marina di Chioggia from Kings' Seeds.

Bushfire is a fairly compact plant so very suitable for a small garden. The other is huge!

I live in Paraparaumu and we have a Kings Seeds supplier in Te Horo so will pop in next time I am going that way TAPANDAV. Hoping to convince my husband to try pumpkin in our garden allotment here in Kapiti Retirement Village.

Thank you all for your comments, I will stick to buttercup.

cheers Gran

Our buttercup is very popular in Japan. They call it Kabocha. They often don't peel it. Since I found that out, I often don't peel mine anymore either. Sometimes I still do, as I want the extra caramelisation on the flesh, but otherwise I think the vitamins and fibre in the skin will be a bonus I shouldn't discard. In Korea, it's called danhobak. They make all sorts of interesting things from it, including
porridge (kabocha, rice flour, sugar......not my cup of tea) and kabocha latte ( [mykoreankitchen.com] - not to my taste either but I can see the appeal for some).

Buttercup is my absolute favorite, the drier, the better. For the same reason you mention Gran, I have given up buying grey pumpkin, for some years now. However it is also very easy to find when I cook it, a buttercup is moist and lacking flavour, so it's hit and miss for me. I have found local 4 square is the best place to buy a decent nz buttercup and I will buy several at a time at a good price.
I try to grow our own but it depends whether I plant them early enough and as we come and go a bit, whether we're there to water properly when they need it, so once again it's hit or miss! I don't think butternut has very much flavor, but when I've grown them they have produced quite prolificall

I especially hate peeling pumpkin so they've always been cooked with skin on, and we both eat the skin (buttercup). My favorite way is pieces in the microwave sprinkled with s&p and cooked with a paper towel on top. No we don't eat the paper towel! If we are feeling really naughty we love adding a blob of butter on each piece before its microwaved.
Regards,
Dawn.

I love Kamo Kamo or Kumi Kumi Yum Yum. Last year I saved some seeds which are now lurking under some Yates Seed Raising mix and maybe, just maybe, I will have a prolificall harvest too come November. Thanks Dawn for my new word.

Ha, ha Kone, it's like the dish ran away with the spoon except I'm not sure which dish ran away with my "y." (I did try to fix it on my new cell phone but couldn't find how to repost it after editing. I must need some more lessons!)

I'm with you on the kumi kumi.....another love of mine although I put them in the marrow type rather than pumpkin. Adore them stuffed, and I use them when they are anything from 3 inches long to fully grown.
Regards,
Dawn.

Griz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I only ever buy cut pumpkin, that way I can see
> the colour of the flesh, dark bright orange and
> they generally have lots of flavour and a good
> texture, but the majority are pale and will have
> no flavour... I do think they are often picked too
> early.
> I do also buy Butternut, if the plan is to roast
> it, but not if mashing or souping, as I don't like
> the texture for those uses.

Griz, ibuy pieces from time to time but have had tasteless and watery pumpkin despite a good colour. Was a time when I didn’t give it a thought that the pumpkin might be watery.

My mother always swore by buttercup pumpkins and I agree with her. If I have to buy pumpkins, that is what I buy. I generally grow my own pumpkins - usually buttercup and something else from King's catalogue that sounds fantastic but usually fails to live up to the hype. This year my "experiment" was a butternut - type pumpkin but the skin was dark green with orange streaks when ripe. I got 2 fruit from it - one was quite long and the other was VERY long. The flavour was OK - quite sweet, but I wasn't so keen on the texture. Last year I had lots of self-sown pumpkins that turned out to be the grey crown pumpkins. One was particularly tasty so I saved its seedsand hopefully this year's will be just as good since buttercup don't last as long in storage as the crown pumpkins.

I agree totally with Griz! The bright orange fleshed crown pumpkins are normally well flavoured and I only buy cut pieces. Another secret.....when buying nectarines always chose the ones with tiny wee spots. They are always sweet! Works with most varieties although there is one variety that never has spots, cant remember name.

Dear Gran
It has a lot to do with the hybrid varieties of commercial seed they use now. I have only recently had a friend make the same comment, that she had saved seed then planted last year and they were awful. Hybrid seed will often not produce the same properties a second time.
Sadly a lot of the pumpkins grown are for their keeping properties or smaller size for exporting overseas and we as consumers start to accept these changes from commercial and supermarket lines. But all is not lost as there are some great local growers that still try and produce real pumpkins. Like us as small growers, even though we buy our seed commercially we source varieties for their taste, colour, size etc. Kings Seeds have some great options (and they advertise that it is hybrid or heirloom) or search out some heritage seed companies. If you buy from the farmers market or similar ask the grower/stall holder "Is this a hybrid seed?" then you know and if the pumpkin is really good and from old heritage seed, save them, dry them off and plant them next year!
As for Kamo Kamo/Kumi Kumi we produced a few hundred ton last year and people went nuts on them. We had great fun sharing recipes and methods of cooking. Again an old-fashioned vege that has come back into favour! And they are so good for you. I had one gentleman come and buy at least 5 per week, he reckoned they were just like he remembered as a child. It made my day.

Thank you Sally H. Very interesting. We do not have room to grow pumpkins, but will keep my eye out at the markets, when they are up and running again. I will ask for heirloom only product.

cheers Gran