Pumpkin Pie and Cross Pollination in the Garden

So, I made a pumpkin pie last night, using my previously frozen pumpkin that was really mystery squash grown last year!  Pumpkin is squash, so you can make "pumpkin" pie from any winter squash.  Don't try summer squash.  Can you imagine a pie made with patty pan or zucchini?  Ick...  Winter squash (that includes pumpkins) or sweet potatoes (which will taste the same, but be thicker). 




The "mystery" of the squash was that it was not Sweet Meat, the seeds I purchased.  It was never determined what they were, and there were two kinds of fruit from the same seeds.  The seller feigned ignorance, rather than offering me a refund. 

These were the two I got. 

The striped ones on the right (these were so pretty) were smooth and bright orange, although not as smooth or as orange as the Warty French (Galeux D'Eysines), which are the orangest and the smoothest pumpkins/squash I've ever grown!  But, still it cooked up nicely, froze well and is delicious in recipes now.  The yellow fellow on the left?  Nasty!  Stringy, watery, and bitter.  I didn't keep any of the yellow one's flesh.  

Obviously cross-pollinated.  But, not by me.  Seeds you buy will (should) produce what you bought. The seeds you save will be the ones to grow the crosses.  Twice last year I bought already crossed seeds.  These not-Sweet Meat squash, and my yellow Brandywine tomatoes.  It irked me to be told that I did it!  No, they sold already cross-pollinated seeds!  I won't be buying from those vendors again.  The tomatoes were extraordinarily beautiful, but they weren't yellow Brandywine...

If you plan to save seed, you need to grow one type (and hope the bees don't visit the neighbor's!) or hand pollinate.  I'll just go with buying new seed each year, of just the varieties I want, and hope for no surprises.  Probably the best chances would be to buy squash only from reputable businesses (say, rareseeds.com for instance) and not individual family farmers.  Tomatoes will be no problem, I am not growing them from seed anymore!  Too much time and trouble, when I can get them from a local lady for a few dollars a piece, and they'll be so much larger than mine. 

I had the pie for breakfast!  It's eggs and squash and milk in a crust, so what's not breakfast about that!  I could have beaten the spices in more, but it tasted just fine! 

If you want a good pumpkin pie recipe, it's here on this blog!  Just search "pumpkin pie" and there it'll be!  I checked.