11/26/2025
Pumpkin prep 101
Sugar pumpkins are your baking variety. I made 2 c of puree and a cup and a half of roasted seeds with the small one I bought for Halloween.
The ones I have are from the Pumpkin Patch at the Methodist Church in Caliente. They were acquired from New Mexico and are an indigenous project. I saved 30 seeds for future gardening. I simply dry them on a paper towel and then store in a paper envelope.
Processing Pumpkins and Seeds:
Cut the pumpkin open at the crown. Slice in quarters. Using a large spoon, scrape seeds and stringy pulp from the inside. I baked mine using a roasting pan. Other recipes say to wrap pumpkin in foil and bake it that way. (Save the foil for your tin foil hat.) Place cut pieces in the bottom of a roasting pan and add a pat of butter to each piece.
Bake at 350°f for about 45 minutes. The pumpkin will have the consistency of a baked potato when finished. Let it cool and remove the skin. You may use a colander or wire net style strainer to separate the pulp from the stringy material, but that's not necessary if you take a fork to the baked pumpkin and remove it from the interior. Mash with a potato or bean masher to refine the product.
2 cups of puree are needed for a standard pumpkin pie. I put that amount in zipper bags and place in the fridge or freezer until needed.
The seeds were cleaned and strained well and added to a salt brine. I used 4 T table salt to 1 - 20 oz bottle of water. Soak until the shells are transparent. They'll be a greenish tone similar to the seed inside. Pour them into a strainer and drain. Salt them and stir them around in the strainer. Salt again. Bake in a 400° f oven for 30 mins or until they start to pop. You may have to stir them a little to make sure the moisture is baked out of the seed shells.
