How to make a pumpkin pie
If you want to make a pumpkin pie, you’ll need some pumpkin parts, and you might as well grow your own. Plant your seeds soon because pumpkins need at least four months to mature, plus pumpkin seeds would appreciate our warm, rainy spring weather.
A typical Connecticut Field pumpkin maxes out at maybe 25 pounds. The largest pumpkin on record weighed 2,749 pounds and was grown in Minnesota in 2023. However, way before that, pumpkins and squashes originated in mid-Western Hemisphere, probably Mexico. Scientists figure they’ve been around 9000 years or so which is plenty time for them to morph into a few dozen varieties in a happy array of colors.
Pumpkins, squashes, melons and cucumbers are in the gourd family, also called cucurbits. Cucumbers will climb a trellis if you have one, but most pumpkin plants send out sturdy vines, sometimes 30 feet long depending on the variety. I’ve seen birdhouse gourd vines travel down a pathway, climb a fence and continue the journey on a fence five feet above ground. Zucchini plants instead stay where they’re planted and pop out prodigious numbers of what plant specialists consider immature fruit (unless squash bugs get there first).
Pumpkins are technically fruit, but that’s just a name and they still behave the same, regardless. And speaking of pies, folks who count things claim U.S. farmers and gardeners grow 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkin annually. There’s a break in the rainstorm, so sneak down to your garden and plant a few pumpkin seeds. One method is to prepare a flat-topped mound, the top being about the size of your dinner plate. Make another one two or three feet away. Pumpkin plants need space, so one plant per dinner plate is best.
A gardener with well-prepared soil should expect up to five pumpkins from the vine of a large-fruited variety. Small-fruited varieties like Munchkin and Baby Boo might produce a dozen, plus they can be engineered to climb a trellis if you have one.
Squash bugs like pumpkin plants. Once the little brown eggs appear on the undersides of the big floppy leaves, you have entered the Zone of Decision. If you’re gonna make a pie, you must confront squash bugs. Nasturtiums have an odor that might repel them. Sprays of mint oil and cinnamon oil freshen the air and annoy bugs. Neem oil also might deter them, but sometimes, relentless squash bugs – just being who they are – win.
If the invasion is managed and your pumpkin vines survive, water thoroughly once a week, more during a hot, dry spell. If we’re gonna make a pie, we want moist pumpkin parts. The leaves are also edible, by the way. Cook them the same way you cook leafy greens. Larger leaves get fibrous. Pumpkin blossoms, too, are edible and tasty drizzled with olive oil and gently fried for a couple minutes. Pumpkins have a lot to offer.
The traditional Navajo word for pumpkin is “naayizi.” The Cherokee language word is “iya.” Even though pumpkins are truly American, our language uses a word derived ultimately from a Greek word meaning large melon. The previous version “pumpion” might first have been written as “pumpkin” in mid-17th century by Nathaniel Ward writing the law code for Massachusetts. Or it might have been in Charles Perrault’s story Cinderella. Either way, it’s still called a pumpkin in English. In Spanish, it’s calabaza.
National Pumpkin Day is October 26, so gardeners should have a ripe pumpkin by then for making a pie. Some conscientious gardeners prevent rot by placing cardboard or a board under developing pumpkins. So, after five months of sunshine, ample watering and devoted attention, your pumpkins will be ready for making a pie.
To make pumpkin pie, look up recipes online. There are dozens. Pick one. You’ve already done the hard work.