A woman won
a contest for guessing the weight of a giant pumpkin, which weighed
166 pounds. She invited a pumpkin fancier to provide suggestions
for using the pumpkin because she had no idea what to do with
it.
The pumpkin
fancier attempted to cut into the pumpkin, but it was tough going.
The chunk he was able to cut from the top weighed 20 pounds. It
was the size of a hubcap and the skin, believe it or not, was
5 inches thick.
Inside the
pumpkin was a stringy, gooey mess that included many seeds. Altogether
there were 523 seeds, and each seed was the size of a quarter.
Once the insides were taken out, the pair made a giant jack-o-lantern
— for photographic purposes only.
After “Jack”
smiled for the camera, he was cut to bits. The skin with the attached
flesh is what’s used to make pie filling. It took nine 13-gallon
bags to hold it all. The bags were transported to the pumpkin
man’s house in his hatchback. The entire area was needed
to transport the bags of pumpkin.
To prepare
for pie, pieces of pumpkin were placed on cookie sheets and baked
for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. Four filled cookie sheets were
cooked at a time. Each batch was cooled, then the flesh was scraped
from the peel into a bowl. This was then sieved to make the pie
filling smooth. Once the skin, seeds and water were removed, 25
quarts of pumpkin was obtained.
A standard
pumpkin pie recipe calls for 2 cups of pumpkin per pie. Each batch
of filling made two pies. This baker made 16 pies before getting
tired. After the pies were given away to friends and acquaintances,
he still had 21 quarts of pumpkin left. The remaining 21 quarts
of pumpkin were donated to a senior center. It is thought that
the residents at the center used the pumpkin for even more pies,
but who knows. Hopefully this story ends happily and something
yummy was made.
