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edleigh7
head gardener
Australia
1005 Posts |
 Posted - 01/02/2008 : 07:12:51
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Thats all right everyone, the tomatoes fate is sealed.
Feel free to talk about whatever you want
Ed
Brisbane QLD AUS
Tropical Collector |
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Mary-Anne
garden sage
Australia
10809 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 07:26:35
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Gail I have more of the Kents and the dark orange flavour is too much for me reminds me of PawPaw  I like the big grey the best but ours are over 6kg and too much for us so the neighbours share, they are hard to cut and peel but Tony helps out there and I know plenty of people that Roast/Bake them with the skin on and cut off when cooked, so much easier.
Gail yes I see the White Swan Lake ...Well Done.
Good Things Come To Those That Wait ... I am Tired Of Waiting |
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tessa
head gardener
Australia
3682 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 10:45:48
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i guess it depends on personal taste. i like the kents/japs because they are moist in texture. i find the blues a bit dry...which makes them good for soups. there is always a danger in cutting pumpkins, that's for sure, and another reason why blues scare me. they are so big!!!
but, i suppose, my drop saw would make short work of them. do you have one of those, pamela?
in any case...pumpkins are great value for home cropping. just look at gail's!!! you really have to wonder why they charge so much for them in the stores??? same as lemons. how does anyone make a penny selling lemons in this country????
the only thing better value for space vs. return, is apparantly the sweet potato. i'm experimenting with them this year. they sure are a pretty plant. very lovely vines.
and the vines are edible too. why just the other night...liz and i ate the vines in that pic.
nothing extra special...but very much like spinach...so a useful green.
so far, i've been able to resist peeking under the soil.
I CAN'T WAIT!!!!
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever!
perth, wa |
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Pamela
head gardener
Australia
3949 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 11:10:48
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Eden does not have Big Grey.
They only have what is listed below. I imagine all my lovely pumpkins will go with the first frost - silly me I thought they were a perennial and it seems there is not enough sunny days left for the little ones forming to ripen but I will see and I have loved them as a ground cover. I will order a Jap based on Tessa's advice. Any of the others below "interesting"??
PUMPKIN - ATLANTIC GIANT
PUMPKIN - BABY BLUE
PUMPKIN - BIG MAX
PUMPKIN - BLACK PRINCE
PUMPKIN - CINDERELLA
PUMPKIN - COW PUMPKIN
PUMPKIN - CROWN PRINCE (WHANGAPARAOA CROWN)
PUMPKIN - GOLDEN NUGGET
PUMPKIN - JACK BE LITTLE
PUMPKIN - JACK O' LANTERN (HALLOWEEN)
PUMPKIN - JAP
PUMPKIN - JARRAHDALE
PUMPKIN - PAPAW
PUMPKIN - PINK BANANA JUMBO
PUMPKIN - SMALL SUGAR (NEW ENGLAND PIE)
PUMPKIN - SMITHY'S GOLD
PUMPKIN - STYRIAN HULL-LESS
PUMPKIN - TRIAMBLE
PUMPKIN - TURKISH TURBAN
PUMPKIN - WALTHAM BUTTERNUT
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Gail
garden sage
Australia
7707 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 11:13:33
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I like the flavour of both the greys/blues and the kents. The kents I like because they are easy to peel and are very nice mashed but not much good for roasting, the greys on the other hand are beautiful roasted though a little dry mashed, so I like to use both depending on what I'm cooking. I'm not sure how these greys are but I got the seed from a pumpkin my MIL gave me which just came up in her yard. That pumpkin was one of the hardest I've ever cut. I only just managed to cut it, and I'm not small or weak, but the flavour of that pumpkin was one of the best I've tried.
Tessa, I don't think I'd like to use our dropsaw (which is at work anyway) but I wonder if my reciprocating saw would be ok 
Pamela, I don't see why you can't roast a pumpkin whole. You probably would need a few holes to let steam escape and only cook it slowly. If you managed to cut it in half and scooped out the seeds it would cook faster.
BTW Tessa, have you tried growing the sweet spuds in the ground. If anything can grow in the matted roots, sweet spuds might. I think those things can grow anywhere, I nearly consider them a weed in the ground (it's also one of the few vegies I'm not keen on). Why don't you shove one in the back corner somewhere and see how it goes - no harm in trying.
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to use it in a fruit salad.
Gail, near Gympie, Qld |
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Gail
garden sage
Australia
7707 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 11:20:35
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Pamela, you posted when I was writing mine. I can send you some seeds of the greys for next spring but Jarrahdale is a big grey type - the usual one you see in the shop. I haven't tried many of those but golden nugget is a small single seving size good for cooking whole and stuffing, jap is another name for kent (I can give you seeds for that too), baby blue is a smaller version of Qld blue (similar to Jarrahdale). I don't know much about the others. Styrian hull-less I think is grown for seeds; cow pumpkins and atlantic giants aren't as nice for eating but I suppose would be ok for pumpkin scones
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to use it in a fruit salad.
Gail, near Gympie, Qld |
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tessa
head gardener
Australia
3682 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 11:20:41
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good idea, gail. i will try that next year. the sweet potatoes are hot-season only...so i won't have enough time to do it this year.
recipricating saw. good idea!
and what about a good ole (clean) sledge hammer? if you're just going to cube it or cut it into pieces anyway...the first 'cut' is not nearly so important.
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever!
perth, wa |
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Gail
garden sage
Australia
7707 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 13:16:22
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Getting back to the subject of out-of-control pumpkins (in the tomato thread ), I wonder if this pumpkin vine will make it to the house which is on the left of the pic! It has nearly made it across the gateway.
It has tried to go up the callistemon on the bank first
One of the many pumpkins on the vine
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to use it in a fruit salad.
Gail, near Gympie, Qld |
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tessa
head gardener
Australia
3682 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 13:59:02
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oh my gosh!!!
night of the living pumpkins or what????
honestly...what's not to love about pumpkin vines? sure...they take over. and yet we complain about all the things we have to coax to life and tend diligently too or else they give up the ghost. why are those things so much more valued than all that beautiful greenery you're getting, gail? and look at the beautiful flowers. honestly...how many flowering plants to we enslave ourselves to...ones that don't cough up blossoms for us so regularly? and...then...at the end of it all...we get a good feed.
honestly.
where are our priorities?
maybe it's time to give up this idea of exerting our control over nature...and just go with the things that *want* to go!!!
really. what's wrong with that?
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever!
perth, wa |
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Pamela
head gardener
Australia
3949 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 15:13:08
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| to some ... some .... degree, I agree Tessa. Morning glory vine wants to go .. many other "weeds" that have lovely flowers want to go ... like all over the rain forest here ... from tip to tip of towering giants all smothered in Cape Ivy, Madiera Vine and others ... I sprayed 45 L of a bad chemical on Wednesday to try to get rid of Wandering Christian ... it wants to go .... Trying to kill Honeysuckle trying to take over the other side of my place and privet - well this valley is privet heaven. A million small plants come up all the time. |
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Mary-Anne
garden sage
Australia
10809 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 16:07:05
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Pamela I have never bought a pumpkin seed in my entire life I just plant the ones from the pumpkins that I buy too eat, and believe me there has not been many bought over the past few years..
Now days the seeds are from the one we grew last Winter.. That have come up in the compost bin ..
Tessa if you grew pumpkins the way ours are growing in the garden, you would have no garden it would be all pumpkin vines and there would be no where to put your pots either.. 
Man cannot live on pumpkin alone, He would soon get sick of it.
After all variety is supposed to be the spice of life
Good Things Come To Those That Wait ... I am Tired Of Waiting |
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tessa
head gardener
Australia
3682 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2008 : 17:13:34
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that's why i'd also plant potatoes, mary-anne. 
pamela...sweet potatoes are morning glories!
but i hear what you're saying too.
i say...get the pumpkins in first...and let them choke the privet to death!!!!
cranky people live longer. i'm going to live forever!
perth, wa |
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