- Okay, it's pumpkin season.

I love pumpkin season.

This is something I am planning to cook, hopefully in March.

I know that sounds like a long time, but we're gonna talk about that.

Now the reason why I'm curing all my winter squash is for a few reasons.

One, I want the best flavor.

Now there's certain squashes like acorn squash or spaghetti squash that need to be eaten quicker.

But these guys, the secret sauce is the time that you wait.

So the longer you wait, the sweeter it gets.

The other reason why I cure and I put my pumpkins down in storage, is I don't have time or room right now to process any more food.

I am done and tired of processing, but come January I can get back in the mood.

You want to be enjoying pumpkin curry soup or pumpkin cookies or pumpkin rolls or a pumpkin smoothie all season.

How do we do that?

Let's talk about curing.

(salsa music) When we pick our squash most likely it's gonna come out dirty.

If it doesn't tell me your secret.

So I just wanna show you, I have this pumpkin here.

I'm still gonna use it.

I'm still gonna eat it.

It's one of my favorite pumpkins.

But the sad part is when I picked it the stem had already split.

There's been marks something got nibbled at it, probably my chickens.

Anyways, I know that this pumpkin I'm gonna have to use as soon as possible.

It's probably going to rot.

But this one, this beauty right here, I'm going to save.

I'm gonna keep it in fine condition so that it can last as long as I need it to before I wanna cut into it.

There's a few ways that I've seen people do this.

I personally like to go off of what Utah State University says 'cause they are a fantastic school of agriculture and they have all the best tips.

So what I do and what they recommend is one part bleach to nine parts water.

And what we're doing is these squashes most likely have some bacteria or some kind of fungus if you had powdery mildew, and it will continue to rot your squash.

So this will just prolong that curing process and make sure that you can have squash up until June if you want.

Another solution that people like to do is they'll just use white vinegar and wipe down their pumpkins.

So either way I'm sure will work.

This is just the way that I've done it so I'm gonna keep doing it.

Okay, I gave this pumpkin a good wash.

It's clean, but now I'm going to spray it with my solution just to make sure, just a light spray and I'll just wipe it down.

Again, we're just getting rid of the bacteria, fungus, everything that would make it rot because I don't plan on cutting into this pumpkin until about March, maybe April.

After I have washed and I have cleaned I'm gonna put my winter squash in, not a dark space but more where it's not gonna get sun scalded, 'cause you don't want the sun on there burning it or causing any damage, but somewhere outside where it can dry or in a garage.

Someplace where it can get a lot of good airflow so it's really, really dry before you put it in storage.

When we put it in storage, I'm gonna put it in as cold of spot in my basement that I can't, ideally it's 55 degrees but I hope that you're not living in a basement that's 55 degrees all winter long.

So I put it in the coldest spot in my basement that usually is about 60, 65 degrees, and in a nice dark place and I keep it there until I use it.

There's no way I'm gonna eat this huge pumpkin.

Maybe I will if I'm like cooking for a big group of people, but most likely this is gonna be for my family and I wanna get every last bit of goodness out of here.

So when I cook a pumpkin, I will roast one.

Takes about three to four hours honestly to roast a big pumpkin.

And then after that I will puree and I freeze it and I freeze it in my little blocks or my cubes.

And this is pumpkin that I had from last year because I want it at its sweetest point in March.

So this pumpkin is actually not gonna be used until fall of the following year.

But I have this pumpkin that I've already cured, it went through the sugaring process, it's super good, super sweet, that we will now use for our fall desserts, our fall pies.

I personally have a vendetta that we have to say it's only in November that you eat pumpkin.

We have pumpkin pie all year round because it's so good.

I don't think you need to stop this as a Thanksgiving thing.

Let's just eat pumpkin pie when we are in the mood for pumpkin pie.

We do pumpkin smoothies in the morning with a little pumpkin spice.

We also do a pumpkin curry soup.

So good.

Get yourself some naan, dip it around, if you wanna make it vegetarian obviously don't add any meat, my kids like a little bit of chicken in there.

The other thing I like to do, and I know it sounds weird, so if you thought of like potato rolls, think pumpkin rolls.

It doesn't taste like a pumpkin but it makes your bread super soft and super fluffy.

And then beyond that, it gives it this nice little like golden yellow, sometimes an orange hue just depending on the pumpkin that you use.

And it's super soft dough, and it's just flaky and beautiful when you open it up.

Don't just get stuck in one mode of thinking, oh I have to make butternut squash soup.

There are so many ways to use your winter squash, get that fiber in, have it taste good, and be creative.