Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Pumpkins to carve, pumpkins to eat

Get to know your gourds

A wide variety of pumpkins for carving or cooking at Suzie’s Farm’s Pumpkin Palooza picking event.
A wide variety of pumpkins for carving or cooking at Suzie’s Farm’s Pumpkin Palooza picking event.

October in San Diego continues the transition between summer and winter crops, so everybody’s breaking out the winter squash. While gourds aren’t something we automatically think about in terms of organics, winter squash is actually up there with spinach and green beans on the list of conventionally grown vegetables that retain the highest levels of pesticide residue. So this month we’re looking exclusively at organics.

Adam Maciel’s farm actually has both green beans and spinach coming in October, while its winter squash varieties include butternut, acorn and spaghetti squash, famous for stringy flesh that doubles as a pasta replacement.

Obviously, there’s one big orange gourd that dominates our October landscape. Actually, make that two orange gourds — both of them pumpkins.

Sponsored
Sponsored

While most October pumpkin purchases are made in the name of Halloween, these are considered carving pumpkins, bred to make better jack-o-lanterns, not taste good. While their seeds roast up just fine, carving pumpkins are grown for size, promoting thin shells to make spooky knifework easier. Consequently, they wind up being relatively hollow, with smaller amounts of grainy, watery flesh. Not good pie material.

Pie pumpkins tend to be smaller and denser like other gourds, yielding more flesh per pound, and finer texture. As pie pumpkins skew sweeter, they’re sometimes referred to as sugar pumpkins. And you may find organic pie pumpkins at farmers' markets.

JR Organics stands will be offering offer both kinds of pumpkin this month, to go with its own butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash. Maciel’s is focusing on the sweet pie pumpkins, not jack-o-lanterns. They’re not just for pies, either — the Maciels report one creative customer selected eight of these smaller pumpkins in the same size, so she could serve pumpkin soup inside their shells to dinner guests.

Past Event

Pumpkin Palooza

Past Event

Pumpkin Palooza

Both Stehly Farms and Suzie’s Farm offer pumpkin patch events in October. Suzie’s hosts Pumpkin Palooza from 10am-2pm each Saturday between October 8 and 22. The free events feature live music and plenty of what Suzie’s likes to call porch pumpkins for carving, including the polar bear pumpkin, which has white skin that glows orange when a candle’s placed inside.

Per usual, Suzie’s also has a great deal of interesting edible varieties, including the triamble pumpkin — a peculiar looking blue pumpkin with dense sweet flesh — and porcelain doll, which is pale pink sometimes moving into a blue or green shade. Both are great for pies. The French musquee de Provence pumpkin is a favorite for soups and sauces, and looks like something out of a storybook, with squat, thick lobes — Cinderella’s fairy godmother might easily turn it into a carriage.

Past Event

Pumpkin Patch and Farm Tour

  • Sunday, October 9, 2016, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Stehly Farms Organics, 12630 Santa Catalina Road, Valley Center
  • $6 - $7

There’s also a breed called Cinderella pumpkin, one of many available when Stehly Farms welcomes pumpkin pickers to its patch in Valley Center October 9. A small fee includes access to a petting zoo, corn maze, and a chance to pick pumpkins both for eating and for carving.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Syrian treat maker Hakmi Sweets makes Dubai chocolate bars

Look for the counter shop inside a Mediterranean grill in El Cajon
Next Article

Bait and Switch at San Diego Symphony

Concentric contemporary dims Dvorak
A wide variety of pumpkins for carving or cooking at Suzie’s Farm’s Pumpkin Palooza picking event.
A wide variety of pumpkins for carving or cooking at Suzie’s Farm’s Pumpkin Palooza picking event.

October in San Diego continues the transition between summer and winter crops, so everybody’s breaking out the winter squash. While gourds aren’t something we automatically think about in terms of organics, winter squash is actually up there with spinach and green beans on the list of conventionally grown vegetables that retain the highest levels of pesticide residue. So this month we’re looking exclusively at organics.

Adam Maciel’s farm actually has both green beans and spinach coming in October, while its winter squash varieties include butternut, acorn and spaghetti squash, famous for stringy flesh that doubles as a pasta replacement.

Obviously, there’s one big orange gourd that dominates our October landscape. Actually, make that two orange gourds — both of them pumpkins.

Sponsored
Sponsored

While most October pumpkin purchases are made in the name of Halloween, these are considered carving pumpkins, bred to make better jack-o-lanterns, not taste good. While their seeds roast up just fine, carving pumpkins are grown for size, promoting thin shells to make spooky knifework easier. Consequently, they wind up being relatively hollow, with smaller amounts of grainy, watery flesh. Not good pie material.

Pie pumpkins tend to be smaller and denser like other gourds, yielding more flesh per pound, and finer texture. As pie pumpkins skew sweeter, they’re sometimes referred to as sugar pumpkins. And you may find organic pie pumpkins at farmers' markets.

JR Organics stands will be offering offer both kinds of pumpkin this month, to go with its own butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash. Maciel’s is focusing on the sweet pie pumpkins, not jack-o-lanterns. They’re not just for pies, either — the Maciels report one creative customer selected eight of these smaller pumpkins in the same size, so she could serve pumpkin soup inside their shells to dinner guests.

Past Event

Pumpkin Palooza

Past Event

Pumpkin Palooza

Both Stehly Farms and Suzie’s Farm offer pumpkin patch events in October. Suzie’s hosts Pumpkin Palooza from 10am-2pm each Saturday between October 8 and 22. The free events feature live music and plenty of what Suzie’s likes to call porch pumpkins for carving, including the polar bear pumpkin, which has white skin that glows orange when a candle’s placed inside.

Per usual, Suzie’s also has a great deal of interesting edible varieties, including the triamble pumpkin — a peculiar looking blue pumpkin with dense sweet flesh — and porcelain doll, which is pale pink sometimes moving into a blue or green shade. Both are great for pies. The French musquee de Provence pumpkin is a favorite for soups and sauces, and looks like something out of a storybook, with squat, thick lobes — Cinderella’s fairy godmother might easily turn it into a carriage.

Past Event

Pumpkin Patch and Farm Tour

  • Sunday, October 9, 2016, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Stehly Farms Organics, 12630 Santa Catalina Road, Valley Center
  • $6 - $7

There’s also a breed called Cinderella pumpkin, one of many available when Stehly Farms welcomes pumpkin pickers to its patch in Valley Center October 9. A small fee includes access to a petting zoo, corn maze, and a chance to pick pumpkins both for eating and for carving.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Spa-Like Facial Treatment From Home - This Red Light Therapy Mask Makes It Possible

Next Article

Gonzo Report: Downtown thrift shop offers three bands in one show

Come nightfall, Humble Heart hosts The Beat
Comments
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Oct. 5, 2018
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Oct. 24, 2018
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Oct. 24, 2018
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Oct. 24, 2018
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader