I had two five-pound pumpkins I used for Halloween decorations. I save my pumpkins to eat and share with the chickens. They get the pumpkin guts and skin. When I store whole pumpkin and winter squash, it's mainly for the chickens. If I run out of feed for the chickens, the cooked squash and pumpkins can feed them through the winter. I save human squash and pumpkins by canning. I make soups, pies, cookies, and bread.
I love my all All American Canner; it's tough and doesn't have a rubber gasket, which has to be replaced on a regular basis. I've had this canner since 2010. I'm going to buy an extra pressure gauge just in case, but it still works.
I baked the halved pumpkins for 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Baking makes the skin easier to peel, and cutting up the pumpkin is easier.
I stuffed the quart canning jars with cubbed pumpkin flesh until firmly packed and added some water to top the jar. I wait 10 minutes and add extra water if needed. I sterilize the canning lids by boiling them in water for five minutes.
Clean off the lip of the jars, place sterilized lid, screw-on the bands. Add two inches of water to the pressure cooker. Place your jars in the pressure cooker with a rack on the bottom.
You don't want the bottom of the jar touching the bottom of the pan. The jars will crack from the heat. Place on high heat at 5lbs of pressure. Once the canner starts whistling, start the timer for 30 minutes and turn down the heat to maintainpressure. After 30 minutes, turn off the burner to let the canner full of jars sit for a couple of hours. Or until the pressure gauge is at zero. You don't want to remove jars too soon; the temperature change may break the seal on the lids.
Remove the lid band after jars have cooled. Check for a secure lid. Wash jar if needed. Write the date and jars content on the lids. Store in a dark cupboard that doesn't get too hot or cold. My Grandma kept her jars in her basement. I have a closet converted to a storage room. My ancestors kept their preserved food in a root cellar.
I made up a recipe for caramelized cinnamon pumpkin seeds. I boiled my seeds for 10 minutes, drained them, and let the seeds dry out wrapped in a towel. The seeds turned out sticky; the recipe needs some tweaking. My caramelized peanuts turned out perfectly.
The seeds are tasty but not what I wanted; I want crunchy, not sticky. I am still going to eat them! Here is the Candy Peanut recipe. I've used this recipe dozens of times and even changed it to reduce the sugar. I will post my tweaked version at a later date.
