This is not just ordinary pumpkin soup preparation, this is the preparation for pumpkin soup that we then pressure canned to make it shelf stable. The pumpkins can’t be canned as soup because it is then too dense for the correct heat transfer inside the jar and one runs the risk of the centre of the jar not getting hot enough. When we want pumpkin soup, we give the jar a good shaking, open and it, and add it to some fried onion, a little nutmeg, thinning if necessary.
The pumpkin retains its chunkiness after the end of the preservation process. The bubbles in the photo show how hot the contents have been.
Preserving of all kinds is an art that is being lost from many families. My own children have seen me preserve both in their younger age, and more recently, but I would have to teach them (oops). One can dehydrate pumpkin – simply grate it and set your dehydrator. Freezing chunks is another good way to keep pumpkins for longer. We’re finding this year that with all the rain we’re having, the pumpkins, stored the same way as we do every year are just not keeping as well, and I think this is a feature of the general dampness of the weather.
As things change in the world, it is going to become more important than ever to have a store of food, just in case. More and more of us need to be growing vegetables, for at least some of the year, then that crop needs to be preserved to make it last over the times we can’t grow vegetables. If you’re interested in learning about the science behind preserving food for the rest of the season, watch this video below. If you want to know more, please click on the button below and we can talk (see what I did there LOL). Plans are afoot to run on-line and face to face courses very soon, on different Homesteading topics in NZ. I will be enlisting the help of other very knowledgeable and experienced people In the meantime, if there’s a video recipe on a particular preserve you’d like me to make, please just ask.