Pumpkin began to be grown even before our era in America. In ancient Egypt, this plant was a delicacy. The ancient Romans learned how to make durable vessels from pumpkins. In China, such dishes were placed only on the table of the imperial family.
Today it is a useful and beloved by many product, which has firmly entered the diet of a modern person who cares about his he alth.
Pumpkin description
This is an annual plant with a powerful, well-developed root system and a creeping grassy stem. It is prickly, pentagonal, forms tendrils in the axils of the leaves, with the help of which the plant clings to the supports and stretches upwards. The stem can be up to eight meters long.
Five-lobed large leaves also cover small hairs. The pumpkin blooms with orange or yellow large single flowers, which attract the attention of pollinating insects from afar. They are male, same-sex, have a long pedicel. Flowering begins in late June and continues until early July.
Thick-skinned fruits ripen in autumn. Their shape, size and color depend on the variety grown. Inside, under a dense peel, there is an oily juicy pulp.with many white large seeds.
Flasks, jugs, bottles, cups are made from tableware pumpkin (lagenaria). It is believed that such dishes have good energy.
Diversity of species
There are many varieties of pumpkin in the world. They differ in size and shape, color and taste, as well as the scope. They are very small, the size of a pear, or giant. They can be spherical and flattened, serpentine and bulb-shaped, star-shaped. Some of them are smooth, others are bumpy and rough.
And the fruits also differ in color - orange, yellow. These colors are familiar to most of our readers. Is there a green pumpkin? And not only. Some varieties are colored red, white, brown, gray. There are striped and spotted representatives in this large family.
Popular cultivated species
To date, three of them have received particular popularity.
Hardbark
Distinguished by a ribbed stalk, on which grooves are pronounced. She came to us from Mexico, and three of her species are known: long-branched (gives small but numerous fruits), bush (zucchini and squash), decorative.
Muscat
It has a five-sided stem, which expands towards the base. The surface is ribbed or smooth, the shape is elongated, at first the fruits are colored green, but as they ripen, it becomes yellow or brown. The seed chamber is small and the pulp layer is thick.
Large-fruited
This species has a rounded cylindrical stem. The fruits are flat with a bumpy surface and very sweet in taste. Three varieties are distinguished in this culture: sulphurous, winter and mammoth.
Green pumpkin: varieties
There are a great many varieties of this popular all over the world and very useful plant. Some of them are grown for animal feed, others are famous for their sweetness and juiciness, for which they are very fond of cooks, and others are rich in valuable seeds. In recent years, decorative pumpkin varieties have also become popular. In all these varieties, there is a green pumpkin (you can see the photo in this article).
Large crops: a "winter treat"
Mid-ripening, short climbing variety. Pumpkin green (dark) with black dots. The fruit has a rounded shape. Weight - about 5 kg. The flesh is dense, bright orange in color.
Miranda
The semi-bushy plant belongs to mid-season varieties. The fruits are green, have a gray speck, rounded. Weight - about 4 kg. The pulp has a pleasant taste, dense. The seeds do not have a hard shell. The variety is unpretentious in care, gives a good harvest even in difficult climatic conditions.
The Frog Princess
This is a wonderful mid-late variety with dark green fruits. They are turban-shaped, wrinkled. Weight can reach 10 kg. The pulp is dense light orange, very juicy. This variety is a valuable dietary crop.
Hard-bark varieties
This group of plants got its name from a very dense and rough layer of bark, which gains strength as it matures. This is the earliest maturing species grown in Russian gardens, but pumpkin lovers should be aware that their flesh can be quite coarse, so you need to carefully choose varieties for cultivation. Today, many interesting varieties and hybrids of pumpkins are offered, among which you can choose plants of an unusual look and taste.
Harlequin
Green gourd of this variety tastes like a buttrnat gourd. Its shape is slightly flattened. The pumpkin is not large. The green peel of the fruit is covered with small spots. The pulp is dense, light orange in color. The taste is very delicate and pleasant.
Freckle
Another hard-core variety, fully consistent with its name: small rounded fruits (no more than 2 kg) are painted green and covered with white-yellow spots. This variety is ideal for small areas due to its compactness. The plant has short lashes, it is bushy, demanding on moisture. The flesh is light orange, not too sweet, but with a subtle pear flavor. The seeds are small.
Acorn
This pumpkin is often called an acorn pumpkin because of the resemblance of its small fruits to acorns. The pulp is sweet, saturated yellow color. The peel can have a variety of colors - from orange to dark green, as well as combinations of these colors.
Marble
Late-ripening variety, characterized by wrinkled flattened fruits that do not exceed five kilograms. This pumpkin has a very high yield and excellent keeping quality. The pulp is sweet, bright orange, juicy. The peel is gray-green with lighter dots and stripes, which form the marbled color. It can be used both in cooking and as a fodder crop.
Vitamin
One of the latest varieties - at least one hundred and thirty days pass from the first shoots to ripening. This nutmeg variety is famous for its wide, oval or cylindrical fruits, with pronounced ribbing closer to the stem. A ripe pumpkin is colored brown with a pinkish tint, with a grid of greenish rounded spots. The flesh is dark orange, almost red, crispy, sweet, rich in carotene. Fruit weight - about 5 kg.
Marina di Chioggia
The fruits of this famous Italian variety of nutmeg pumpkin, which has taken root well with us, are impressive. Questions immediately arise: “The pumpkin is green inside, is it possible to eat it?”. Yes, you can, and even need to, because it is very useful.
This variety can produce fruits up to 10 kg, although more often its weight does not exceed 6 kg. The pulp is dense, slightly dry, orange in color. This variety is stored for up to six months without losing taste.
Decorative fruits
And now let's talk about a very interesting variety of pumpkins. The garden today should be not only useful in all respects, but also beautiful. That is why decorative species are becoming more and more popular every season.pumpkins They have many advantages. Many novice gardeners are interested in: "What is a decorative green pumpkin, can I eat it?".
These species were bred by breeders for beauty, so their palatability was not taken into account in most cases. As practice shows, if a decorative green pumpkin is suitable for eating, it is only at a young age. Ripe, it has a very hard crust, no taste, and is of no interest to humans or even animals.
When purchasing seeds in a store, the manufacturer often indicates on the packaging whether this variety is edible or not. If there are no such recommendations from the company, then nothing will prevent you from experimenting. A decorative green pumpkin will not be poisonous, but tasteless, hard or having a slightly specific taste - most likely, yes.
And yet, decorative pumpkins can have excellent taste. An example of this is the green pumpkin "Shayot". In addition to the original appearance, it has an excellent taste, reminiscent of an apple, and portion sizes. This is a winter variety. This small green pumpkin has rather large seeds. Recipes for cooking dishes from it are no different from those for summer types. But the main feature of this variety is that this small green pumpkin will also become an original decoration of your garden.
Lagenaria and Cucurbita
And these varieties are grown only for decorative purposes. The fruits of these varieties are distinguished by unusual shapes, strongpeel, which allow you to make various decorations for the garden from them. They are used for Halloween. Harvest should be removed from the garden before the first frost, otherwise the peel will be damaged and the pumpkin will simply rot.
After harvesting, the fruits are wiped with a dry cloth and dried in a dark, cool place in a natural way. It is important that they do not touch. During the drying process, they should be wiped dry regularly and ensure that mold does not appear. Completely dried fruits are light, and seeds are poured into them, as if in a rattle.
Useful properties of pumpkin
Fruit pulp is not only tasty, but also very useful, pumpkin is a storehouse of vitamins and valuable minerals. It contains pectins, proteins, fiber, carotene, acids, sugars. The seeds contain a large amount of essential oils, zinc. Pumpkin belongs to low-calorie foods, for this reason it is included in many diets. Pumpkin seeds are dried and used in folk medicine as an anthelmintic and for the treatment of prostatitis. In addition, when fried, it is simply a delicious delicacy that is often used in cooking.
Healing properties
Pumpkin dishes should be included in every person's diet. This is especially important for people suffering from diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, liver. Pumpkin can relieve depression, insomnia. This product must be included in the diet of children from an early age (porridge, juice). In addition, pumpkin dishes are recommended for everyone who suffers from malnutrition, tuberculosis, hypertension, and liver diseases.and kidneys. You should not give up the regular use of pumpkin in case of heart disease, increased production of gastric juice, inflammatory processes in the digestive tract.
Green pumpkin: what to cook?
This he althy and tasty product is loved by both adults and children. There are a lot of dishes from it and with the addition of it as one of the ingredients. And do not be embarrassed that our today's heroine is a green pumpkin. Cooking recipes are no different from her relatives with any other skin color.
Roasted pumpkin
To prepare this dish you will need:
- pumpkin - 1 kg;
- vegetable oil - 1/2 cup;
- sour cream - 400 g;
- breadcrumbs - 60g;
- s alt.
Peel the pumpkin from the skin and seeds. Cut it into thin slices (about 3 mm). S alt them a little, roll in breadcrumbs and fry on both sides in a frying pan in oil. Drizzle sour cream over pumpkin slices before serving.
Green pumpkin jam
And now we offer you a very unusual recipe. Throw the pumpkin on the floor to shatter it. Without touching it with a knife and other metal objects that give a metallic taste, remove the seeds and yellow streaks with your hands. Pieces of pumpkin are boiled in s alted water until the skin leaves the pulp.
Now the boiled pumpkin must be poured with cold water and peeled with your hands. The pulp should be pulled in water, as if you were washing it, until foam appears. The water needs to be changed periodically. Then the pumpkin is immersed in brine. It is prepared at the rate of 50 g of coarse s alt per liter of water, and left in it for a day.
After this time, the brine is drained, the pulp is washed and poured with clean water for another day. After that, it is necessary to let the water drain and weigh the pulp. Mix it with an equal amount of sugar. Two cinnamon sticks are added to this mixture and the container is placed on a slow fire. It must be constantly stirred so that it does not burn. The jam will be ready when it turns brown.
Pumpkin in a pot
Peel off the pumpkin, cut into small cubes, place in pots. Add prunes, raisins, dried apricots. A magnificent dessert is cooked under closed lids in the oven for about forty minutes. Children love this dish.
Pumpkin with honey in a slow cooker
Wash the pumpkin, remove the seeds, cut the fruit into slices like a melon, while the peel does not need to be cut. Place them in the multicooker bowl, skin side down. Add water (half a glass) so that the pumpkin does not burn during cooking. Put honey on top (two tablespoons) and sprinkle the dish with cinnamon. Cooking time 30 minutes on the "baking" mode. After cooking, remove the dish from the multicooker, remove the skin. Place the pumpkin in bowls and garnish with a mint leaf.
