I picked several pumpkins about 5 weeks ago which weren't fully ripe, leaving several inches of the vine attached to the stem. Somewhere on these intertubes I'd read that partially ripe pumpkins can be finished off inside on a sunny windowsill this way. So I thought I'd give that a try. I'm happy to report that all but the smallest and greenest of those pumpkins now look fully ripe. We don't have great southern exposure from any window in our house; too many large shade trees that screen the light, even with bare branches. So the pumpkins ripened very slowly. But they did ripen. These underripe pumpkins I was able to salvage just about doubled our total pumpkin harvest.
Just thought some of you might like to know this trick for next year. Now to move the ripe pumpkins to the coolest room in the house. They like to be stored around 50 degrees F (10 C).
5 comments:
Would you post again when you eat them? I'm curious to know how the flavor is compared to field-ripe. I assume it won't be quite as rich, but will it come close, at least?
Emily
one of my girlfriends had a huge harvest of pumkins but the spotty dusty mold that affected all our vines here in our area killed off many of the vines so she had alot of smallish green pie pumkins that were not anywhere near ripe she however left hers out on the back steps and they ripened! same with the last few ones she had in her laundry room they ripened perfectly she made pies with these said pumkins for thanksgiving and they were delish :)
good to know-thanks for sharing!
kris
Thanks for the info. Living in Australia, my vines are just about ready to start producing pumpkins. I'll keep this in mind should I need it. And I'd also like to know if there is much of a taste difference. xx B.
Emily, will do for sure. I suspect that there won't be much difference to detect, given that in my cooking pumpkin is usually paired with some pretty strong flavors (e.g. sage and parmesan, mint and garlic, ginger and tomato). The differences would have to be significant to be noticeable in those conditions. But yes, I'll post about it when I cook them.
Kira, glad to hear the pumpkin harvest was good in your neck of the woods.
Kris, anytime.
Bec, I wish you a bountiful pumpkin harvest this year. Keep an eye out for the promised report on pumpkins ripened off the vine.
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