Jättikurpitsa - Winter squash

Jät­ti­kur­pit­sa – Win­ter squ­ash
Cu­cur­bi­ta ma­xi­ma

Cu­cur­bi­ta­ce­ae –hei­mo, kurk­ku­kas­vit

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Jät­ti­kur­pit­sa on uu­dem­pi vil­je­ly­kas­vi ver­rat­tu­na kesä­kur­pit­saan. Ni­men­sä se on saa­nut val­ta­van ko­koi­sik­si kas­va­vis­ta he­del­mis­tään. Jät­ti­kur­pit­san var­ren poik­ki­leik­kaus on pyö­reä. Sen var­si kas­vaa pit­käk­si ja haa­roit­tuu sa­mal­la. He­del­män kan­ta on kork­kiu­tu­nut. He­del­mien muo­to ja koko vaih­te­lee la­jik­keit­tain. Van­hem­mi­ten he­del­män kuo­ri ko­vet­tuu ja niis­tä tu­lee hy­vin säi­ly­viä. He­del­män mal­to on hie­no­ra­keis­ta ja isot sie­me­net si­jait­se­vat mal­lon kes­kel­lä.

Jät­ti­kur­pit­sa on kyl­män arka ja se voi vi­oit­tua jo 0 – 5° C. Kur­pit­sat tai­mi­kas­va­te­taan Suo­mes­sa en­nen is­tu­tus­taan. Kur­pit­sat ovat ko­toi­sin Kes­ki- ja Ete­lä-Ame­ri­kas­ta. Nii­tä vil­jel­tiin jo n. 8000 – 9000 vuot­ta sit­ten. Kur­pit­so­jen sie­me­net tu­li­vat Eu­roop­paan Ame­ri­kan löy­tö­ret­kien tu­li­ai­si­na.

Jät­ti­kur­pit­san mie­dot ja me­huk­kaat he­del­mät ovat kyp­sät, kun kuo­ri on ko­vet­tu­nut. Kor­juu ta­pah­tuu yleen­sä myö­häis­syk­syl­lä ja kur­pit­sat ovat­kin kek­ri-ruo­kaa. Niis­tä tu­lee hyvä keit­to esi­mer­kik­si chi­lil­lä, val­ko­si­pu­lil­la ja koo­kok­sel­la maus­tet­tu­na. Li­säk­si kur­pit­saa käy­te­tään pai­tok­siin, mar­me­laa­dei­hin ja kak­kui­hin. Eu­roo­pas­sa kur­pit­saa on vil­jel­ty pe­rin­tei­ses­ti säi­lyk­kei­den ja hil­lo­jen raa­ka-ai­neek­si.

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Pump­kin (Win­ter squ­ash)
Cu­cur­bi­ta ma­xi­ma

At Green city farm we se­lect a tra­di­ti­o­nal pump­kin va­rie­ty that is sui­tab­le for food pre­pa­ra­ti­on. Ot­her ty­pes of pump­kins have been se­lec­ted for de­co­ra­ti­ve att­ri­bu­tes (an examp­le being the Hal­lo­ween jack o ´lan­tern ty­pes) or for their size which has be­co­me the base for com­pe­ti­ti­on (the world re­cord weig­hing well over 1000kg). All pump­kins are edib­le, the va­rie­ties best sui­ted for cu­li­na­ry use should have a thick lay­er of deep yel­low or oran­ge flesh and a rich fla­vor when coo­ked. They weigh from 5 to 30kg and con­tain nu­me­rous oval sha­ped seeds that can also be ea­ten.

Gro­wing pump­kins is not dif­fi­cult, they re­qui­re a lot of spa­ce and suns­hi­ne, and be­ne­fit from rich ma­nu­res and or­ga­nic fer­ti­li­zers. Pump­kins will grow vi­go­rous­ly di­rect­ly from the com­post heap. They take bet­ween 90 and 110 days to grow and soon af­ter plan­ting be­gin to pro­du­ce long vi­nes that may re­ach up to 5m in length and grow at their pri­me at about 10cm per day. Lar­ge yel­low male flo­wers on nar­row stems soon be­gin to ap­pe­ar, fol­lo­wed about a week la­ter by even lar­ger fe­ma­le flo­wers. Bees and in­sects abound around the­se flo­wers which soon be­co­me pol­li­na­ted, and at the base of the fe­ma­le flo­wer the pump­kin be­gins to ex­pand. As the lar­ge le­a­ves be­gin to dry and die back in ear­ly au­tumn the now lar­ge pump­kins be­co­me vi­sib­le and be­gin to ri­pen. The skin or shell of the pump­kin har­dens and of­ten chan­ges co­lor in­di­ca­ting that the pump­kin is soon re­a­dy. The ripe pump­kins will not to­le­ra­te frost and must be pro­tec­ted or ta­ken to shel­ter.

Good qu­a­li­ty pump­kins are of­ten lar­ge and dif­fi­cult to hand­le, but do not let this put you off, it will be worth the ef­fort. From one pump­kin you can pre­pa­re many dif­fe­rent de­li­ci­ous dis­hes, to­ast the seeds, and fi­nal­ly use the shell to make an au­tumn lan­tern. Nut­ri­ti­o­nal­ly pump­kins are ex­cel­lent, con­tai­ning a wide ran­ge of mi­ne­rals, vi­ta­mins, and ot­her comp­lex nut­rients es­sen­ti­al in a he­at­hy diet. If hand­led ca­re­ful­ly and kept in a cool dry pla­ce a pump­kin can last from 6 to 8 weeks from har­vest.