My ugly pumpkin, harvested 5 March, 2011.
This pumpkin could well a descendent of the one which was, according to Charles Perrault, turned into a coach so that Cinderella could ride to the ball. The original story of Cinderella is a very ancient one. The good and lovely girl who is harshly treated but wins through in the end has gone by many names over the ages. She is called Cendrillon (''cinders'') in French, and it is in the French version of the story, written by Perrault in 1697, that the pumpkin which is turned into a coach, and the fairy godmother who waves her magic wand to make this happen, make their first appearance in the tale.
The pumpkin in the picture is called Galeux d'Eysines (or Brodé Galeux d'Eysines). Galeux are warts or scabs, brodé is embroidered, and Eysines is a small town close to Bordeaux in south-west France. Now this information isn't a fairy tale! and you can buy the seeds of this heirloom pumpkin (or 'bumpkin' as some wag in the US has named it) from Kings Seeds and other heirloom seed sellers in New Zealand.
It has grown very well for me this year, being the first of the five varieties of pumpkin I planted to reach maturity. It is also the largest and heaviest to date. We guess the weight of the one in the picture to be around 15 kg. There will be plenty of tasty flesh inside when it is cut open, and now that I have lemongrass growing in my glasshouse I will be able to make my favourite pumpkin soup, which has typically Thai flavourings of lemongrass, lime and coconut. Keep watching this space for the recipe...
The pumpkin in December 2010, when it was but a pup (and I mistakenly thought it was an Australian Butter pumpkin, as its warts had not started to form).
It is the most delicious pumpkin I have ever eaten. Thank you Christine for sharing it with us.
ReplyDelete