HARVEST OF THE WEEK

pumpkin head

The first pumpkin here at hq finally ripened on the vine... it took a LONG time to get to this point, and we were both thrilled and trepidatious about cutting into the little beastie, and finding out what it was like inside. Because you never really know with the first home grown gourd.

Thankfully it was a delectable golden yellow: firm, juicy and everything we'd hoped it would be - to look at at least. But the proof as they say is in the eating, so I whipped up a one pot blonde minestrone (which also utilised some of our humungous harvest of zucchini) complete with oversized parmeson  and garlic crouton  to see how it tasted.

the answer? Delicious with a capital D, in fact the best butternut i've ever tasted. Thank god we've got another five or so on their way, becuase now we've got a long list of pumpkin recipes to try out from pumpkin gnocci with sage butter to japanese adzuki beans with pumpkin, kombu and sesame seeds, not too mention scones with the last of the apricot jam stash. Hurry up little pumpkins - we're hungry.