Waiting for Pie

Way back in May I transplanted my pumpkin seedlings. In the intervening weeks, those tiny seedlings have been growing. 

I keep looking for pumpkins, but it takes an entire summer to grow a pie! Here’s where they are right now. Most of the yellow flowers are male flowers – they are the ones that produce pollen. But there are a few female flowers here and there. 

As the pumpkins grow, so do the leaves – shading them from the sun. New England Pie pumpkins take about 100 days to grow from a seed. That’s more than three months, so with luck I might see ripe pumpkins about the time The Pie that Molly Grew hits bookstore shelves. 

Here's the cool thing about pumpkins: you can eat the entire plant. Yep, those  shoots, tendrils, leaves, flowers – even immature fruits – are edible. And tasty, too. Last summer I learned that young leaves and shoots can be stir-fried. Just remember to peel the outer prickly skin off first. And some folks use leaves to make soup. I’ve had squash-blossom fritters before, but you can also toss the flowers into salads or quesadillas (remove the stamen and any sepals or stem).

The Pie that Molly Grew releases August 15th with a blog tour! So you may find me chatting with other bloggers about pumpkins, gardening, pollinators … and pie. You can pre-order autographed copies from Riverow Bookstore, located in historic downtown Owego, NY.

See you next month with some funny stories from the pumpkin patch.