A tale of two pumpkins

We've lived at our 'new' house for almost 2.5 years now. The garden was a massive pile of weeds when we moved in (the house had been rented out for many years and the garden neglected) so the first year was mostly spent removing weeds, large and small. In year two I experimented with a few fruit and vegetable plants, and this year we've built a small but thriving collection of berry bushes and fruit trees. One very exciting achievement, in year two, was growing my first two pumpkins ever! I germinated some seeds last October, planted the seedlings in the garden, and harvested the two pumpkins around April this year. One we ate pretty quickly (scones, soups, stews ...) and the other hung in a macrame hanger until this week.

I finally decided the time had come, this week, to eat it. Half of the pumpkin went into a large batch of pumpkin, sweet potato, lentil and coriander soup (enough for five dinners; four portions went into the freezer) and the other half found itself in a pumpkin loaf this morning:

0.25 cup olive oil
2 eggs
0.5 teaspoon vanilla essence
1.5 cups wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
0.5 cup chopped nuts or pepitas (optional)
2 cups pumpkin, chopped and microwaved (or steamed) until soft

Beat oil, eggs and vanilla together. Add to sifted dry ingredients, nuts and mashed pumpkin. Bake in a greased loaf tin for 1 to 1.5 hours in a moderate oven (about 180 degrees Celsius).

Slather on some butter for a delicious yet nutritious weekday lunch.

Behold ... pumpkin loaf! Yummy

Once again, I ate some for lunch and packaged the rest up into lunch-sized portions in the freezer. Fingers crossed this year's pumpkin plants also bear fruit.

Oh, and if you're interested in the berry bushes ... they've just started fruiting! Here are some gooseberries and red currants ...

... and if we're lucky there will be boysenberries and blueberries too in the not too distant future.