Pumpkin!

Luci planted pumpkins this year.  Today John harvested the very first one.  Luci and I worked to preserve it, and made some muffins along the way.  I followed the directions on this site.

Here she is!  This pumpkin weighed 7.2 lbs.  It is really too large for freezing, according to the things I've read online because the larger the pumpkins are, the stringier they can be.  We didn't let that stop us.

Not so sure about the innards!

It was really easy to separate the seeds from all that goop.  Just put the stuff in a bowl, add water, and watch the seeds float to the top.  Pick those out, then stir the mess again.  If the seeds are stuck to the fibers, just rub them between your fingers.  They will come loose.  The bowl of water makes it so easy.  I roasted the seeds (Luci added the butter and salt) and we enjoyed them after supper.  Directions here.

We steamed the pumpkin, a bit at a time, in the microwave.

Pureeing the flesh.  The site recommended a hand blender.  Mine did not work.  The VitaMix had no problem!

We had enough for three packets for the freezer (one will make a batch of muffins, two will make a pie), and enough left over for...

Muffins!  These were so good!  Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from allrecipes.com. 

JT refused to try a muffin.  He won't eat anything that's the same color as his hair (orange).  I tried to get him to taste just a crumb of one, a crumb loaded with chocolate chips, but he wouldn't!  He did, however, make off with half of the roasted pumpkin seeds.

The Great Pumpkin Experiment is a winner!