Lovely! Let us know what it tastes like. Does it look like a butternut inside?

That's a whopper Mantis! My butternut pumpkins are the regular variety. I haven't seen them like yours since I was a youngster when my uncle grew them.

WOW. Fantastic Oz. Is "Hercules" a variety? Butternuts are my favourite punkin. Would love to be able to grow them like that all the time. Do you have others of a similar size? For the second year I have some that are very fat at the non-seed end with with an almost distorted undersized seed end. Will try to post a photo.

That's a great looking Butternut alright Ozmantis. Never seen a variety that long over here. Hope you'll post us a picture once you've cut into it.
Cheers.
Rosco

Here it is Rosco. Made a batch of pumpkin soup for lunch yesterday and had roast pumpkin with the roast chook for tea, both tasted great. So far it is solid.

Lol. Lengthwise. Cut it lengthwise. We want to see ratio of seed to flesh.

Then it would go off Grub. We want to get some feeds out it first. Chopped off another 6 inches after that shot for mashed punkin. When I get closer to the bottom I will cut it lengthways and I can almost guarantee that there will be few seeds. BTW, I found another one of these hanging in the lime tree, after noticing that the pumpkin vine that had grown over the tree had started to disappear downwards. The one in the picture started from a part of the vine that had climbed up the supports I had set up for the potted toms. I think it is so long because it hung from the vine when forming. I have one that is reaching maturity on the ground that is not so long but longer by far than a normal butternut. I have heaps of seeds btw and if anyone wants some email me and I will put you in the list for later when we swap tommy seeds. If you dont want to swap tomato seeds, but still would like some, let me know and I will send some seeds off to you.

Cheers Mantis

Mantis,
Want to drop me an email with your postal address so I can send you some of these Stick seeds and others from this season when I do my mail out this weekend.
Thought I still had it but lost heaps when I had a computer crash a few months back.
Shame but I don't think MAF will let pumpkin seeds into NZ.
Cheers.
Rosco

Ok Grub, I have cut it lengthways and calculated the flesh to seed cavity ratio. In the pic below I cut off the flesh just above the seed cavity and that went into the pot, then I weighed the seed cavity . 1 kg of seed cavity and 2.8 kg of flesh = 73% flesh. Not bad eh.

That a bloody rippper punkin, Mantis. I think it should be renamed the Welcome Butternut Nugget. Just a thought. I actually barbecue 1/4in slices of pumkin with zukes and eggplant and capsicum from time to time. Comes up well.

BTW: As a self-appointed sommelier, with obvious fine tastes that I respect, when is Chardonnay season? The need for racy acidity in the semilon, sav blanc, reisling, and other whites is fast fading.

Good idea with the barbie Grub, I will give it a try. Yeah she truly is a good punkin. Real smooth texture when mashed. Went to the Melbourne "My Restaurant Rules" Restaurant last Wednesday (now called Whisk), and they served lamb and eye fillet beef on a bed of mashed punkin. My punkin is better, and I could do a much better job of the eye fillet I can tell you. The missus loved the lamb but.
As for wine, hey, drink whatever you like and let the wineofiles drink whatever is in season. I love young reds of many kinds because they are fruitier than when they have aged a few years. We have kept many reds to 10 years plus and still have a few, but, on opening and tasting we struggle to tell if the wine is off, or just old. They are usually not off, but we just dont enjoy the taste. I have always loved Chardonnays, because I like the taste of them, fruity again eh. Some of the wood aged Chardonnays take me back to my childhood, with the taste of chocwedge icecream sticks that we used to chew on, sometimes for hours after finishing the icecream, like the cowboys in the movies chewed on a stick of old grass. I am ranting again.

Cheers Mantis *being content with a Hahn Ice brew tonight*

My first pumpkin is a Banana Pumpkin. It's 19cm long and weighs 700g. I thought it would be yellow (don't know why I thought so?). Anybody every grown this before?

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No I haven't grown that one before, but the stem looks withered enoough for it to be ripe.

Mantis

The stem was very dry. Good indication that it was ready.

The skin was incredibly hard to cut. Not much flesh, but it was very smooth and creamy in a pumpkin risotto.
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Pumpkin risotto:
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Aw... man. I'm starting to drooooool. I luv punkin. Especially risotto.