Processing Fresh Pumpkins

I grew sweet pumpkins in the garden this year. I’ve grown pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns before but have never grown pumpkins to eat. I planned to use them in pies and muffins so they needed to be cooked, pureed and frozen for later use.




To bake the pumpkins, I cut them each in half and scooped out the seeds and stringy middles. I placed them cut-side down on parchment lined baking sheets. They were baked for about 1 ¼ hours.



After the pumpkins were cool, the pumpkin was scooped from the skins and pureed in a food processor until smooth.


I then measured out recipe-size portions into zip-top bags and stored them in the freezer.  Each small pumpkin, about 8 inch diameter, made about enough pumpkin puree for one pumpkin pie.

That’s it! Easy peasy.

Cindy

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