I had to google all of my plants to see what the males and femals looked like, lol. I did have a question about the pumpkin flowers. I want to grow a few vines later to harvest the flowers, then cook them all up in a big batch. However I only have the space for a couple of vines, so it may take a couple weeks or more to get enough male flowers to cook up. What my question is, how well do they keep? Would it be ok to freeze the flowers fresh until I have enough, or would they just get all gross? I'd rather not bother unless they store well.

Supposedly all varieties are edible but I have found some to not be worth the trouble as they are smaller and, even when roasted, difficult to crack open. We routinely roast the seeds from pumpkins, butternut, and the larger acorn seeds. As for saving the seeds for planting the following year, since squash readily cross-pollinate with each other most of the saved seed doesn't breed true. If that is no concern, fine, but most prefer to insure true seed by hand pollinating. Dave

Patti, I have made your recipe many times and have loved it. But last week my daughter made another recipe that I think is even better. I will be making it from now on. A little more work, but worth it I think. Pumpkin Pie Cake 1 box yellow cake mix (reserve 1 cup dry mix) 1 egg beaten 1/2 cup margerine, melted Add margerine and egg to cake mix and stir. Spread in 9 x 13 pan Filling 1 29 oz can pure pumpkin 3 eggs 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 cup brown sugar 2/3 cup evaporated milk Mix and pour over cake mixture in pan Topping 1 cup reserved cake mix 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup soft margerine 1/2 cup chopped nuts Mix and crumble over top of filling Bake 1 hour at 350

I have noticed that "volunteer" plants are often stronger and healthier than the ones I plant. Could also be that they started growing at a different time, out of sync with the SVB life cycle. Hope you get some pumpkins! For another year, you could try moschata type pumpkins, like Musque de Provence or Long Island Cheese. They are much less susceptible to SVB.