Pumpkins in the Garden, Pumpkins on the Porch, Pumpkin Seeds in the Snack Box

It’s pumpkin time! Gardeners and non-gardeners alike are picking out pumpkins to carve, paint or etch for Halloween.  For those of you who are carving pumpkins, there is a tasty, nutritious snack just for the making. I’m talking about roasted pumpkin seeds.

I have not always been a fan of home cooked pumpkin seeds. When I tried roasting them in the past they turned out splintery and bland tasting.  I thought the seeds should separate from the husks similar to sunflower seeds, but they didn’t. I figured they were too much trouble, but, I have changed my mind since tasting the batch my son-in-law made last week. 

My granddaughters and I carved a couple pumpkins and set aside the pulp from inside the Jack-o-lanterns. When their dad got home from work he cleaned most of the pulp from the seeds, fed it to the chickens and roasted the seeds on a cookie sheet using a simple recipe from recipes.com.

Some recipes call for washing the seeds with water and drying them before they are roasted, but after tasting the above recipe, I think those steps are unnecessary plus leaving some pulp on the seeds adds flavor.  Most recipes call for oil, but butter is so much tastier and helps the seeds brown perfectly. 

My Son-in-law told me later he used a bit more butter than the recipe called for and baked them at 350 degrees instead of 300 because dinner was in the oven, too. He took the seeds out when they were brown and a little crispy, placed them straight from the oven on a plate in the middle of the table and they made a perfect before-dinner snack for six of us. The husks and seeds together were crunchy and didn’t splinter when I ate them.  An added bonus is the seeds are high in protein, vitamins, and minerals besides being a special tasty treat.

Pumpkins can be used for a multitude of fall and winter recipes including pumpkin custards, pies, cookies, breads and even soups. To prepare pumpkins for using in recipes they can be baked, boiled or microwaved. The secret is to choose a pumpkin variety which is small, sweet and bred for cooking. The pumpkin varieties used for Jack-o-lanterns are stringy and not sweet enough so if you have leftover pumpkins from Halloween carving, don’t use them for your recipe experiments.

I have grown and cooked with many pumpkin varieties and my favorites are ‘Small Sugar’ and ‘Early Sweet Sugar Pie’. Both are small, cook up easily, store well, and have great texture and taste. Pumpkin treats are in season from now through Christmas.  For cooking directions and a multitude of seasonal recipes go to all recepies.

 It is pumpkin season so enjoy the whole experience. Roast the seeds and make some treats!