It was the perfect pumpkin picking weather, and the perfect time of day for Mr. C. and I to visit the pumpkin patch. I’d been looking forward to pumpkin season since September, and after a few delays, we finally decided to get going before all the good stuff was picked over.
I know that everyone says that for cooking pumpkins, bigger isn’t better, and to steer clear of Jack-O-Lantern types. We personally disagree. For us, we’ve made some of the tastiest pumpkin pies with the Jack-O-Lanterns, and when you’re paying a flat rate, the size of your prize is key.
As per usual, we had a little competition to see who could find the largest pumpkins to take home.
Criteria:
- The skin should be firm and not penetrable when pressed by a fingernail.
- The skin should not be scratched or broken.
- The stem should not have black around it or be rotten.
- The pumpkin should not be squishy at all.
- The pumpkin should feel heavy for its size.
- The pumpkin needs to be pretty 😀 .
Well, after walking a bit and looking at thousands of options, we found our pumpkins. My husby took the prize for biggest and prettiest of them all 😀 *why don’t I have a picture if it before it got chopped up?*.
note: the one in the picture is not my biggest find. The big ones are hard to hold for long!
As you can see, lots of pumpkins can be picked green. At first we were confused by the color but learned later that if you put green pumpkins out in the sun, they’ll ripen up. One of our pumpkins was a tad green so we gave it a little sunshine and it was perfect after a couple days.
All in all, pumpkin picking is my favorite way to kick off the autumn season. What’s your favorite way to celebrate autumn?
Stay tuned for how to make pumpkin puree (12/11/17 click here!) and roasted pumpkin seeds (11/30/17 click here!)!
