I read and used the method of sanitizing the surface of the pumpkin lightly with bleach water to help avoid mold. I stored mine in the living room beside the sofa lol I would want them to be unsealed so they can have air. That's a good haul.

I wouldn't use lids on the bins either. The winter squash need good air flow or they're more likely to grow mold or rot. Otherwise, under the bed is fine. Almost anywhere is fine as long as it has good air flow and stays above freezing. It is even better if you have a place where the relative humidity stays low and doesn't fluctuate a lot. I realize you likely do not have a lot of extra space in the trailer, so just do the best you can with what you've got. I think winter squash and pumpkins are beautiful and decorative, so in the years when I grow a lot of them, I often line them up on tabletops and counters because they are like beautiful little sculptures.

Cleaning them with a water/bleach solution and thoroughly drying them before storing them can help slow down the onset of rot. So can curing them, which is merely air drying them for 1-3 weeks in warm weather with good air flow. Some people let them sit in the fields to cure, and some years I do that myself. It depends on whether voles, possums and squirrels are getting into the garden to gnaw on them (a problem some years, not at all a problem most years). I prefer to line them up on a flat surface---a table, boards set across two sawhorses or concrete blocks, or even just lined up on the covered porch.

In the future, when you harvest, be sure to cleanly cut the squash from the vines instead of pulling them. When you have stems with jagged edges, pathogens that eventually cause rot can make their way into the jagged, torn parts of the stem. I don't see stems on many of your butternuts, especially in the first photo. Just an FYI for future years: leave at least 1" of stem on each winter squash or pumpkin when it is cut from the vine. Many experts say to leave 2-4" of stem. When you remove the entire stem at harvest, the winter squash and pumpkins tend to go bad more quickly than if you leave the carefully cut stem intact. Also, often you see people carrying winter squash and pumpkins by the stem, which actually isn't good for them. When you carry the pumpkin or winter squash by the stem, the weight of the fruit can cause minute cracks and separation between the stem and fruit that can allow pathogens to invade which can speed up rot, thereby lessening the length of time they will store.

I try to store winter squash in a dry (non-humid) location where the temperatures remain roughly between 50-70 degrees consistently. At both cooler and hotter temperatures, their storage time can decrease. It is especially important to not let them be stored where they are exposed to freezing temperatures. Having said that, some years we have harvested so many (especially back in the years before the SVBs found us and I also could grow tons of C. pepo and C. maxima and not just C. moschata) that I stored them not only in the house, but also in the tornado shelter, the potting shed and the garage. I have had them last well over a year in the garage (which is detached from the house, insulated but not heated), about as long or maybe slightly longer in the tornado shelter, and a pretty decent length of time----maybe 6 or 7 months in the potting shed, where they were exposed to freezing temperatures since it is neither heated nor insulated. The only place that mice ever bothered them was in the potting shed.

You have a great harvest and I hope you are able to store them and enjoy them for many months. Remember to check them at least weekly so you can remove and use any that give any sign that they are starting to deteriorate in quality.

If you are worried about mice getting into the camper, you could put traps on the ground beneath/around it if you can be sure that Little Man won't get a finger caught in a trap. There's some box-type traps at feed stores (or you can see some of them on FarmTek's website) that will catch and hold multiple mice and they'd be safer to have around a child than the traditional snapping types of traps. I'd rather catch a mouse outside than find it inside!

That's awesome! I am waiting on my seminole pumpkins to ripen. This is my 1st year growing them. WOWSERS! That vine is huge and getting bigger. I seeded it in mid July. I can't wait to try one. How long should they cure/store before they sweeten up some?

I gotta try seminole.

Scott, Two or three weeks of curing in warm weather is ideal, and it looks like our autumn weather will oblige you with warm days for some time yet.

Having said that, I have left them on the vine (sometimes intentionally, and sometimes because I missed some hiding under dense foliage) until after frost----as long as 2 or 3 weeks after frost----and then harvested them and plunked them down on a shelf in the unheated garage, and they lasted 8 or 9 months even though exposed to freezing temperatures regularly. Their skin, when mature, is very hard. It would only be a little bit of an exaggeration to say you need a chainsaw to cut into them. : ) Well, your largest kitchen knife will do it, but it isn't like cutting into a carving pumpkin. That thick rind helps them store seemingly forever.

Bon, I can bring you seeds to the Spring Fling if you need some. I have seeds of both the regular Seminole and the larger-fruited version. Be forewarned, they will cover every inch of ground you have and then they will climb every vertical object they encounter. Mine sometimes climb 20' up into the trees that grow outside my garden fence, and that's after they already have rambled and roamed all over the garden, climbed the tomato cages, climbed the fences, etc. That's how the Seminole and Miccosukee (Creek) tribes of Native Americans grew them---letting them climb up into the trees. In the link below, you might find it interesting to note that the name of the pumpkin, from the Miccosukee people, means "hanging pumpkin". I love growing things that date back centuries in our country.

One of these days I'm going to plant some in the front flower bed adjacent to the house and let them grow up over it and shade it in summer.

Dawn

History of the Seminole Pumpkin

Dawn, that would be cool, but if you forget, that's okay. That's some time away. I think they'd be perfect here.

Dawn, do the fruits of the larger Seminoles stay attached (hang) lile the smaller one? Do they need support?

The best "summer" squash I ever had was an immature acorn from a vine borers killed. I sliced and roasted it and my husband didn't get any. I couldn't stop eating it. But then I love winter squash any way.

Dawn, is there anything I could bring to trade you for some of the Seminole seed?

Amy, Nope. They don't need any special support. They hang on the vines just fine. Seminole vines are about as tough as the rind of the pumpkins themselves.

I harvest lots of varieties of winter squash as summer squash while the fruit are very young and immature. There's not really a certain kind of squash that is used for winter squash versus summer squash genetically. Any squash can be harvested very young and used as summer squash or allowed to fully mature before being harvested and used as winter squash. I just think that, traditionally, people have discovered they prefer certain types (zucchini, for example) as summer squash and others, like butternut, as winter squash.

Carol, I'll be happy to bring a bunch of Seminole seeds to the Spring Fling and people can help themselves to them, with no trade being necessary. I am such a seed addict that I have a big storage tote full of seeds, more seeds than I'll ever be able to grow, so I cannot think of anything I need in trade. I'm just happy to spread the joy of growing and eating Seminole.

Dawn

I have been out of town for 4 days, and today I picked 4 summer squash and four Seminole that had turned. Actually 5, but the chickens got one since it had a soft spot on the bottom. It was on the ground and I didn't know it was there until it changed color and became more visible. My vines look terrible but I don't think it is worth watering them this late in the year. The squash and habanero peppers don't seem to mind. I still have a few tomato plants producing also.

Last year we were gone all summer but had a volunteer Zucchetta that had some huge mature squash on it when we came home in September. Until a few weeks ago, I still had 3 of them. I gave an immature Zucchetta to a friend and he wanted to know if the seeds would be mature enough to plant. I told him probably not, but I had a mature one that I could give him. The next week I decided to cut one. I thought if it was good, I would eat it, and if not, I would save the seed. Well, I did both. It was one year old and was still just fine. It might have been a little drier around the seed cavity, but the neck was still perfect. I still have the largest one to use. A squash that will keep a full year certainly seems worth planting.

Finally harvested 4 seminoles today! There are at least 15 left, most are still green. A few are pretty small. I will just leave them till the plant dies i guess and then harvest. Cant wait to try them. I assume they are the small variety. They are between acorn and butternut in size.

They do sound like the small variety. I've left green ones in the field until after the plants have frozen and they still stored just fine. I think the very thick rind lets me get away from picking them fairly infrequently and having them still be perfectly fine even after being exposed over and over again to freezing temperatures while still out in the garden.

I harvested these before our first frost. I cut them like you said Dawn and hope to cook puree and dehydrate asap.

Kim, I found they need a good curing time. I haven't any idea how long that is, but I tried to puree pumpkin last year that had not cured (sweetened) and it wasn't as tasty.

Illinois.edu recommends ten days curing time and "uniform orange and hard rind" I bet different varieties may vary.

I'm really missing my pumpkins this year! glad you got such a wonderful harvest.



Illinois extension Harvesting Pumpkins

Kim, I have harvested them green many times. Normally, most green ones will color up over a period of 2-6 weeks (depending on how green they were) or even longer as long as they are stored in an area that stays above freezing.

A few years ago (might have been 2011, which gave us an incredible winter squash harvest well into late Nov/early Dec or it could have been 2012), I harvested all I could find before the first hard freeze, and there were tons of them. They ranged from being full-sized and fully buff-colored to being half-sized and fully green. Most of the green ones colored up fine and were usable. They stored forever.

Some time after it froze (a week or two after it froze repeatedly at night), I found another 20 or 30 Seminoles I had missed because they were buried under rampant foliage. I didn't see them until the foliage had frozen and withered. I lined them up on tables in the garage and at least 90% of them colored up fully, cured just fine, and then lasted 12-18 months in storage. It was amazing because I had lower expectations for all the ones that sat in the frozen garden for another week or two, during which time the temperatures were at or below freezing most nights. There had been plentiful moisture earlier in the autumn, but not much in the 2 or 3 weeks before the freeze, so it is likely that they already had stopped active growth as far as enlarging goes, but it didn't stop them from being fully usable once cured.

The reason curing matters is that most winter squash are starchy and not sweet when harvested (unless left on the vine long enough after being fully ripe to essentially cure on the vine). Once they have cured for at least 10-14 days, the starches are converting to sugars and the flavor improves. It can be a fairly long, slow process which is good because you can only eat so many winter squash at once. That's why I don't bother pureeing them, freezing them or canning them----they will store for months in the shell and just get better over time as more starches convert to sugars. Of course, there is a point where they are "perfect" and then they do begin to decline, but they can hold forever at the nearly perfect stage before declining, softening and losing flavor.

Much depends on how mature they were and how much moisture they had when harvested, cured and stored, and not every winter squash stores as well as Seminole, nor does every variety color up well long after being harvested green, but many do. I just check them weekly while in storage. If any start going soft, I use them if they have cured enough to be usable, or feed them to the chickens or compost pile if they haven't. Most varieties of butternut color up and cure well just like Seminole, and so does Long Island Cheese. Others are more iffy. Still, you have nothing to lose by storing them and seeing which ones color up before they soften up. Even when I have had too many to store in the garage, I have lined up the excess ones on shelves in my uninsulated, unheated potting shed, and they have cured and stored in there for at least 4-5 months despite repeated exposure to freezing temperatures. If winters that aren't very cold, they have lasted much longer in the potting shed. When I have them in the potting shed, I try to use those up first once they cure because they won't last as long as the ones stored in the warmer garage.

Most of yours are a nice color already and will just continue to cure and get their fully mature color. Even the dark green ones often do! Congrats on the great harvest.

Dawn

I am completely amazed by the harvests this year. This is the second wave of pumpkins I got off these vines. When I got the other 25 or so I thought that all these babies would freeze before maturity. The extra long season was just about right. They didn't have any water in over 3 weeks. Since it was planning to rain and freeze I figured they had a better chance in my car. I "cured" them in my car and now they are in the non working walking cooler at slaughter house. I made 2 pies and breads and cookies with the early harvested ones yesterday. I can't eat them but everyone see said they were awesome. I dehydrated a little for a snack. I may have to work on that. Lol

I'm delighted your harvest was so good. In a year with adequate autumn rainfall, as long as you can get the plants through the summer dry spells, they tend to produce huge autumn harvests. It is one of my favorite things about winter squash. I don't get in any hurry to plant them in spring since they like warm soil....and since the May/June rainfall and high humidity can be hard on them anyway. I don't care if I am harvesting any winter squash at all in the summer....we have summer squash, after all. To me, they are the perfect late summer and autumn crop and then you get to enjoy them for months afterwards. Sometimes I harvest all the early Seminole fruit at the 1 to 4 day (after blossoming) stage as summer squash and don't even let the fruit stay on the vines long enough to enlarge and mature until sometime in August when I finally stop picking them small and let them get bigger. My chickens are spoiled---I harvest Seminoles as summer squash to feed them daily, especially if we have run out of cucumbers or Armenian cukes. I like to feed the chickens cukes and Armenian cukes or icebox melons daily in order to ensure the chickens have more than enough moisture in their systems on those hot summer days.

No matter how many Seminoles I harvest early as summer squash to feed the chickens, the plants just keep pumping out more and more, so we ultimately have all we want for winter squash anyway. One of the best things about winter squash is how easy they are to store as long as you have a place to store them. No freezing, canning or drying is required unless I choose to preserve some in that manner. I like something that's so easy to put away and store for the future.

Okiedawn,

How do you cook the early picked little Seminole Pumpkins that you use as summer squash? Can you peel and roll in cornmeal and fry or do you steam/boil them?

I have been eating the seminoles. I am growing these again! They are delicous. But I am having trouble with storing them. They want to get soft and get a white mold on them. So I will not be eating all 31 that I harvested. Better luck next year I guess. This is my squash storage practice year.

The best way that I know of to store pumpkins is to bake and puree and put them in the freezer in little freezer bags. This way they are good for up to 6 months to a year.

Scott, I'm not sure why yours are molding, but it was a very wet year so I am not surprised. My Seminoles routinely last up to a year or longer in storage and sometimes up to 18 months, as long as they were stored after being cured and as long as they are stored at temperatures above 50 degrees. They do last longest in storage after growing in a very hot, dry year. My best guess is that your Seminoles aren't lasting as long this year because it was such a wet year and they had a much higher water content than usual. Very wet years are hard on winter squash if they go into storage after growing/maturing in really wet conditions.

Next year, with your next harvest, you might try wiping them off with a water/10% bleach solution to remove any surface bacteria after harvest. I don't know if it would help (I have little experience with winter squash grown in wet conditions since we're generally dry here most summers/early autumns) but it likely would not hurt. I believe the ones I harvest in August/September store the longest, but even those harvested in October and November (even after frost) often store well until April or May, even when they were cured under pretty cool weather conditions. I've even had those that were harvested green and lined up on tables in the garage (well-insulated but unheated) slowly turn buff over the winter and develop fine flavor after a prolonged storage period, though the ones that were closest to full size when the freeze hit usually are the highest quality and those that were smaller may not taste as good since they were not fully developed.

It likely is not too late for you to bake the ones that haven't molded, scoop out the flesh and freeze it, as Auther suggested. You then could use the flesh in cooking.

Seminole, like all winter squash, taste better to me as time goes on, as more starch converts to sugar during the storage period, but there is a point where their quality and flavor peak, and then it slowly decreases over time. Because of their hard shell they often can be stored for a very long time while still maintaining their quality, but when they mature in very wet conditions they often do not store for as long of a period as usual. Each year is different depending on what the growing conditions were.

Dawn

Another way to use it... I just made an awesome loaf of seminole pumpkin bread. Not a batter bread, but a real deal loaf of bread. It needed more sugar but otherwise is great. And a few nights ago I made seminole gnocchi.