Old varieties of fruits and vegetables.

Ruth n Jersey

Ruth n Jersey

Well-known Member
Location
Northern New Jersey
I was walking through the supermarket today and saw pumpkins for sale. They were labeled pie pumpkins. They looked like the standard orange pumpkin used for Halloween but smaller. When I was growing up in the 50's my Grandma only made pies from what she called a milk pumpkin. Very flat and a creamy pinkish tan color. I don't see them anymore. My Grandpa only grew Country Gentleman sweet corn. Today people around here can't wait for Silver Queen to ripen late in the summer. Super sweet white corn but I don't think it has much of a corn flavor. He would grow the corn in the area where he had dumped the coal ashes during the winter from the furnace, he then would pick through it to find any coal that wasn't burned. In the spring he would turn it all under and it was ready for the corn. Another old favorite was the Greening apple. Very tart but made fantastic pies. I wonder if these varieties really did taste better or is my mind playing tricks?
 

Pie pumpkins are primarlly all filling .

Jack o Lantern type are large and are mostly empty for carving.

This is one thing I don't like about Halloween. Tons of pumpkins go to the landfill. My mother would have a heart attack. She used to grow pumpkins for food. Even battered and deep fried the flowers.

I realize now how hard she used to work to make sure we had food during the winter.

Jars and jars of preserves. Everything from pickled beets to string beans. Now I notice them on sale in the supermarket instead of the frozen variety.

My favorite was preserved wild mushrooms. They were done in balls and battered and deep fried.

I still know which are the good ones to pick.
 
We used blue hubbard squash for our pumpkin pies.

You can also substitute cooked carrots that have been mashed or buzzed in the blender.

BLUE-HUBBARD-WEB.jpg
 

"I wonder if these varieties really did taste better or is my mind playing tricks?"

You've struck a chord, RuthnJersey. A lot of foods don't taste the same to me, and produce in particular. I can't find a fuzzy peach to save my life aside from the ones perched in the rare old tree in someone's yard. You can tell me a thousand times that a nectarine is the same thing only without the fuzz, but a nectarine tastes nothing like a peach. Sadly, apricots (another favorite of mine) don't taste like apricots either, even though they look quite a bit like they used to. An apricot is sweet and meaty and earthy. The very similar looking things I buy at the supermarket have none of those qualities. Even their blush isn't as bright. In fact, they taste rather like borderline stagnant water only not as fertile and far more dry. I used to eat chickens within hours after they were plucked, and I'd describe that flavor as gamey compared to the bird by the same name I buy at the store.

I highly doubt my taste-buds are to blame for the lack of the distinct, lively flavors that used to make my mouth water. I blame genetic alterations, pesticides, and additives. The best I can do these days, the closest I can come to the flavors I remember, is to buy from farmer's markets and roadside produce vendors.
 
A lot of the fruit produced now is bred for transport to reduce bruising. The skin is harder. Some fruit is picked mechanically. Some fruit is picked before it is finally ripe. Strawberries are horrible imitations of the real thing. They are white inside.

Tomatoes have a tougher skin for mechanical picking.

It's what the market will bear.
 
Aunt Bea said:
We used blue hubbard squash for our pumpkin pies.

You can also substitute cooked carrots that have been mashed or buzzed in the blender.
Click to expand...
You can also use sweet potatoes. Sometimes it comes out a little stringy. Probably depends on the potatoes. OTOH, sweet potato pie is a thing all its own in the south.

I think all these substitutions show you that it's really the spices that make pumpkin pie. Pumpkin alone probably doesn't have much flavor.
 
Last edited:
NancyNGA said:
You can also use sweet potatoes. Sometimes it comes out a little stringy. Probably depends on the potatoes. OTOH, sweet potato pie is thing all its own in the south.

I think all these substitutions show you that it's really the spices that make pumpkin pie. Pumpkin alone probably doesn't have much flavor.
Click to expand...

I like sweet potato pie and it's a whole different thing in the north too!!!

b0c522301f75a56c3dca5046dc6c5283.jpg
 
Just yesterday I roasted a quartered kobacha squash. It's my favorite.

Ruth you are so right when you say the corn is too sweet now. I miss the corn of my youth, just a little sweet but it tasted like corn! Today, it only tastes like sugar.

kobacha.jpg

20171006_141313_resized[99].jpg
Kobacha squash

I'm not crazy about pumpkin pie, so I've only made one.
 
Heirloom tomatoes are hard to find (unless you grow them yourself) and expensive when you do but the flavor is nothing like the regular supermarket tomato. They are often knobby and misshapen but so good.
 
helenbacque said:
Heirloom tomatoes are hard to find (unless you grow them yourself) and expensive when you do but the flavor is nothing like the regular supermarket tomato. They are often knobby and misshapen but so good.
Click to expand...

I see them all year in California. They are my favorite tomato. I usually buy a variety pack at Trader Joe's. They're not as expensive as they used to be, maybe a dollar more than other tomatoes...at least here in Fresno.
 
I have a funny pumpkin story. Last year,I bought some "Sugar Pie" pumpkins because my foster daughter wanted to make pies from scratch. Well,we never got around to it so hubby fed them to our donkey. A few weeks ago,I noticed green plants growing in her paddock. There are a couple of different weeds that grow in there that she won`t touch,so I assumed it was just a new weed. Then hubby told me that we have a pumpkin patch down there. Not sure if the sees went "through" her or just washed down there but I was sure surprised!
 
Camper6 said:
Sweet potatoes. Is sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows a southern dish. I saw that on television.
Click to expand...

Yes, it was a traditional Thanksgiving dish. Fixed as a casserole, flavored with real maple syrup and served along with the turkey although as sweet as it was, it belonged on the dessert table along side the pecan pie. Is it any wonder that obesity and diabetes became such a problem.

I don't think it's made as much since we've all become more health conscious
 
My neighbor and I went shopping together this week. When we walked into the store, there was a pile of pumpkins marked $29.95 each. Further into the store, there were a few larger pumpkins marked $79.95. They were large pumpkins, so I'm assuming they're trying to market them to people who want them for outdoor decorations. Even pie pumpkins were priced outrageously high, so I'll have to go somewhere to buy some.

I cook, freeze and feed pumpkin purée to my animals and myself. I'm down to one cat but she would be unhappy if she didn't get her daily pumpkin ration.
 
Smiling Jane said:
My neighbor and I went shopping together this week. When we walked into the store, there was a pile of pumpkins marked $29.95 each. Further into the store, there were a few larger pumpkins marked $79.95. They were large pumpkins, so I'm assuming they're trying to market them to people who want them for outdoor decorations. Even pie pumpkins were priced outrageously high, so I'll have to go somewhere to buy some.

I cook, freeze and feed pumpkin purée to my animals and myself. I'm down to one cat but she would be unhappy if she didn't get her daily pumpkin ration.
Click to expand...

I think that's the idea, Smiley; they produce these "designer" pumpkins - because they sell like hot-cakes in October - and they are a bit costly to produce, but the producers set a price that not only recoups their investment, but gives them huge profits...because, after all, it's only a 30-day spree.

You know, "pumpkin artistry" is a thing now, too. Those guys like 'em big and very thick-skinned. A bit of magic (chemistry) from the producer, and; voila!
 
Camper6 said:
Pie pumpkins are primarlly all filling .

Jack o Lantern type are large and are mostly empty for carving.

This is one thing I don't like about Halloween. Tons of pumpkins go to the landfill. My mother would have a heart attack. She used to grow pumpkins for food. Even battered and deep fried the flowers.

I realize now how hard she used to work to make sure we had food during the winter.

Jars and jars of preserves. Everything from pickled beets to string beans. Now I notice them on sale in the supermarket instead of the frozen variety.

My favorite was preserved wild mushrooms. They were done in balls and battered and deep fried.

I still know which are the good ones to pick.
Click to expand...

Back in the day, my gramma told me that the pumpkins grown for carving were not as good-tasting as pumpkins grown for pie-making.

Gramma and mom and my aunts would all get together in gramma's huge old kitchen after a harvest and jar fruits and make sauces; they even made ketchup during tomato season.

They butchered a hog twice a year...maybe it was three times a year...and used the whole thing. They made the most wonderful sausage, goat cheese, butter from the cow's milk. Ice cream, too. You can't buy that stuff.

Well, you can, but it isn't at all the same stuff.
 
helenbacque said:
Yes, it was a traditional Thanksgiving dish. Fixed as a casserole, flavored with real maple syrup and served along with the turkey although as sweet as it was, it belonged on the dessert table along side the pecan pie. Is it any wonder that obesity and diabetes became such a problem.

I don't think it's made as much since we've all become more health conscious
Click to expand...

I'm from the south, of good old southern parents and grandparents on both sides, so I saw that dish a lot. I never much cared for it, as it was just too sweet and sticky for me.
 
Butterfly said:
I'm from the south, of good old southern parents and grandparents on both sides, so I saw that dish a lot. I never much cared for it, as it was just too sweet and sticky for me.
Click to expand...


Same here but for several members of my family, it was not Thanksgiving dinner without it so I did make it often. But that was years ago. Haven't seen it on a table for a long time now.
 
Where on earth did you do your shopping?! That's a bit steep. It's even steep for Whole Foods!

But never mind pumpkin. I'd walk a mile (or more) for a Winesap apple. They seem to have disappeared.
 
GeorgiaXplant said:
Where on earth did you do your shopping?! That's a bit steep. It's even steep for Whole Foods!

But never mind pumpkin. I'd walk a mile (or more) for a Winesap apple. They seem to have disappeared.
Click to expand...

Albertson's in NE Albuquerque. I'll say those prices are steep. We used to have a little neighborhood Wild Oats store within easy an easy walk from my home. When Whole Foods bought out Wild Oats, they kept our little store for a few months and then they closed it for no discernible reason. It was a little money-maker, always busy and a friendly place to shop. They gave the employees a 5-day notice. I haven't set foot in a Whole Foods since they did that. I don't do business with people who behave like that.

I like to make my apple pies with 3 different varieties of apples. Last year I looked all over and never found a good pie apple like Winesaps, even the old Jonathans. They sure add to the flavor of a pie.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top