It is hard to believe that this huge fruit belongs to the berry family. Wow berry weighing from 2 to 70 kg! Pumpkin is a healthy food product containing many vitamins and minerals, but it is especially appreciated for its high content of beta-carotene and fiber. Its diuretic and choleretic properties are known. This berry is very useful for diseases of the cardiovascular system and liver. And gastronomic qualities are a topic for another discussion. About how to grow and when they harvest pumpkins, in what form they eat, is described in the article.
What a pumpkin loves
It is believed that this berry is not picky, can grow wherever you put a seed in the soil. Although she has her own requirements. Pumpkin prefers soft, light soils and well-lit places. This is not surprising, because the culture comes from the hot latitudes of South America. She feels especially well on manicured beds, and more precisely, on the places of manure and humus storage. In short, organic fertilizers contribute to the rapid growth and ripening of fruits. Powerful stems of pumpkins do not tolerate pruning and take up a lot of space, and this must be remembered. Stems even climb trees, and often you see powerful fruits hanging from high branches. Of course, this is an additional problem at the moment when the pumpkins are cleaned, but how beautiful and original!
Ripening and harvesting dates
This culture is good because it grows in almost all climatic zones, of course, except for the cold North. It is only important to choose the right variety. There are three main varieties of pumpkins: food, feed and decorative. Of course, only food grades are famous for their high palatability.
For northern and middle latitudes, planting dates are later, and in order to have time to get a crop, you have to resort to planting seeds under a film. This helps to significantly accelerate the cultivation and meet the optimal time when harvesting the pumpkin. In the southern regions, everything is simpler: pumpkin seeds are planted in the open ground in the middle - end of April. Seeds germinate fairly quickly, after the beginning of flowering in a short period, small green fruits form. By the time of ripeness, they are gaining their final weight and color - from pale green to bright orange. The time when the pumpkins are harvested is quite long. Some varieties can be harvested in the middle of autumn unripe and stored in a dry place until fully ripened. But mostly the fruits are harvested the very last in the garden. You can not touch them until the first frost. When the pumpkins are harvested, they must leave the stalk - so the fruits are stored longer. Damaged, beaten, or frosted pumpkins should not be stored for long periods.
About the most pleasant
Of course, this is about how to cook pumpkin. There is nothing easier. The fruit must be washed, chopped with a kitchen hatchet into slices, cleaned of seeds (which need to be dried and eaten raw or fried - it is very healthy and delicious!). Fold in a pan and pour hot water so that the product is not completely covered with water, otherwise the pumpkin will turn out to be watery and tasteless. Someone adds sugar to the cooking water, someone sprinkles the cooked slices with sugar, but it’s best not to sweeten, the pumpkin itself is quite sweet. If the pieces are easily pierced with a fork, then the cooking is over. You need to immediately get a pumpkin, put it on a large dish or tray and let dry. There is such a delicacy best with cold milk.
In general, it’s not necessary to cook pumpkin. It is even more tasty and more useful in baked form - just place chopped pieces on a baking sheet and put in the oven. They bake it whole, cutting off the top, removing the seeds and filling it with filling - for example, a mixture of nuts, dried apricots, prunes, honey, or just porridge. Yes, and pumpkin porridge is good in itself, it is tasty and healthy for both adults and small children. Such a wonderful berry!