Don't Throw Away That Pumpkin Puree from The Pumpkin

Here is a quick recipe from allrecipes.com.

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2.	Cut pumpkin into small manageable pieces and cut off pith and seeds.
3.	Place cut pumpkin skin side up in a large roasting pan. Add 1/4 inch of water and bake uncovered for 1 hour or until tender. Remove from oven and allow pumpkin to cool.
4.	When cooled, cut away skin and mash or puree. Use in any recipe that calls for canned pureed pumpkin.

More Info On the Wholesome Goodness of Pumpkin Seeds

How to enjoy the goodness of pumpkin seeds. Do not throw away those goodies.  I found this great article on ehow.com. 

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Discover the expert in you.

Perfect Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

By Athena Hessong, eHow Contributor

Save the seeds from cutting a fresh pumpkin, and make roasted pumpkin seeds. The seeds will be a cheaper, fresher and healthier snack option than packaged potato chips from the store. Perfectly roasted pumpkin seeds have a rich flavor and slight crunch.

1. Preparation

   • Roasting pumpkin seeds in an oven darkens the coloring on the seeds and improves the flavor over microwaving or drying the seeds. Remove the seeds from a fresh pumpkin, or other hard, winter squash. Rinse the seeds off to remove the strings from them. Toss the seeds with 1 tbsp. of olive oil and seasonings of your choice. Roast the seeds for 30 to 40 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit or until lightly toasted. You can also increase the temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and roast the seeds for 12 to 15 minutes, but the higher temperature increases the chances of burning the seeds. Wait for the seeds to cool completely before eating.

   Seasonings

   • Use your imagination when flavoring your pumpkin seeds. All spices should be added when tossing the seeds with oil. Plain salt is a favorite seasoning option, but other spices can also be added. Try spice mixtures such as barbecue seasoning, crab boil seasoning, Cajun spice seasoning, Asian five-spice seasoning, or Italian dressing dry mix. Toss the pumpkin seeds with cinnamon and sugar for a sweet treat. Try hickory-smoked salt instead of plain table salt for a barbecued flavor. Chili powder and lime or garlic and onion powders will enhance the flavor of pumpkin seeds used as an ingredient in Latin-American recipes or as a snack for a fiesta.

   Nutrition

   • Roasted pumpkin seeds are a nutritious snack any time of the day. According to the USDA National Nutrient Database, a 1-oz. serving of roasted whole pumpkin seeds (85 seeds) without salt contains only 126 calories. There are only 5.5 grams of fat in the same serving size. Pumpkin seeds are also a valuable source of protein and fiber, with 5.2 grams of each per serving. Pumpkin seeds are also a good source of potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and zinc. Naturally, pumpkin seeds have a low level of sodium, but adding salt to the seasonings will change this depending on the amount of salt used.

   Serving and Storage

   • Serve the pumpkin seeds as a snack, recipe ingredient, or to top salads and soups. Eat the entire seed whole, or crack the shell with your teeth and spit it out. Seal the cooled roasted pumpkin seeds in an air-tight container. The fat in pumpkin seeds causes them to become rancid after two days at room temperature, but they can be stored for up to two months in the refrigerator.

Resources

• Chow: 10 Ways to Spice Up Pumpkin Seeds

How to Make Homemade Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Its that time of year when pumpkins are growing and pumkins are decorated for Halloween. Generally, people rush to decorate these goodies and then throw them away wasting some of the best thing in nature: pumpkin and pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin seeds are reputed to be high in zinc and also helpful to prevent prostaste cancer in men. Year after year, we run to the store for cans of pumpkin mush to make those delicious pies, all the while throwing away perfectly good pumpkins. Hahhh? Does that really make sense? Why not harvest the goodies? On this web site: Pumpkin patches and more I found some really good instructions, (easy to follow) on how to roast your own pumpkin seeds.

Here is another quick and easy recipe for roasting your own pumpkin seeds from ehow.com.

How to Bake Pumpkin Seeds

By an eHow Contributor

Very few fruits are as versatile as the pumpkin. You can make pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup or pumpkin bread; you can make a lantern out of the non eatable parts for Halloween and you can even bake the seeds and eat them as a snack. This eHow will instruct you on how to best bake pumpkin seeds.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Fresh pumpkin seeds
• Vegetable oil or cooking spray
• Salt
• Kitchen knife
• Baking sheet
• Paper towel
• Spatula

Suggest Edits

1. • 1
     Separate the seeds of a freshly carved pumpkin from the stringy membrane. Rinse the seeds just until they are free of any membrane matter.
   • 2
     Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
   • 3
     Put the seeds on a paper towel and let them dry for a few minutes.
   • 4
     Spray a baking sheet with butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray or brush with a light coating of vegetable oil. Put the seeds on the baking sheet in a single layer, turning to coat lightly with the spray or the oil. Sprinkle the seeds lightly with salt, if desired.
   • 5
     Put the baking sheet in the oven. Cook the seeds for 10 to 20 minutes, or until brown and slightly crisp, turning once. Allow to cool before eating.
   • 6
     Store seeds in an airtight container.

Tips & Warnings

• Pumpkin seeds can be eaten with the outer shell on or off.
• For a saltier treat, boil the pumpkin seeds in heavily salted water for ten minutes, then bake them.
• Also try additional seasonings on your seeds: Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic salt are some possibilities.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish

Picking Milking Goats for the Homestead

So glad to have found this article in Mother Earth, I am looking for a couple of milking goats for my homestead.

Picking Milking Goats for the Homestead

Solomon said, "Thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food, for the good of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maiden" . . . a statement that — besides extolling the beverage-producing attributes of these caprine creatures — goes to show that the generous beasts have been domesticated for a long time! However, a modern goat enthusiast might wish to add to Solomon's wisdom, noting that — over and above its ability to produce healthful dairy products — the "poor man's cow" can be a pretty danged amusing and lovable animal to have around


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How to Pick and Preserve a Pumpkin

 

 

 

 

It isn't necessary that you eat your entire supply of pumpkin right away . . . since one of this               vegetable's greatest advantages is its easy preservability. The gourds don't keep quite as well in a rootcellar as do thicker-skinned winter squash . . . but if handled gently so that they don't bruise, and stored — off the ground and not touching one another — in a cool (50° to 60°F) moisture-free location, they should stay fresh for up to three months. (Do wipe the cellared fruit with a cloth from time to time, though . . . otherwise, the moisture resulting from condensation could lead to decay.)

Read More....

A BARRAGE OF GMOS: HEADING OUR WAY

Unless awareness increases and action is taken soon, the inventions of GMO will soon be inundating our lives.

Twenty Genetically Modified Foods, Coming to Your Plate.

Intro – If the need to halt GMOs were not urgent enough, this article should scare the pants off you. Here we glimpse some of the potentials for the unabated and bizarre proliferation of GMOs. Some of these developments you will already know about (hopefully), but some will come as a surprise. As I see it we are now at a crossroads where we can still dismantle this dangerous and perverted manipulation of the very fabric of life, the sacred code of nature, which will undoubtedly affect each and every one of us in profound ways now and in the future.  Read More...

Raising Chickens: 101. Yeah, I have a dream to live off the land.

Amazing, early in the 19th Century, so many were dreaming to get away from the rural lands, into the urban areas, now many of us now are feeling the strong desire to go back to the ways of nature.

As for me, currently, as far as animals are concerned; I have two dogs and a cat. And I am doing all I can to be a good steward of the pets I own, Elvis and Fox are my dogs and Pesto is my cat. So I have lectured myself, that until they are flee free, cavity free and I am feeding them properly, I can not obtain more animals. But as soon as that is accomplished, well, let me put it this way, I am getting my chicken coop ready. And I just can't wait to get my first free egg as far as I'm concerned, that's the way its meant to be.

So I was happy to see this article from The Farmers Almanac.  Raising chickens for eggs? Let's talk about how to collect, clean, store, and hatch chicken eggs in this fifth installment of our Raising Chickens 101 series .