Monday 18 February 2008

Hot pumpkin lerve!

We have, in the spirit of SOLE, been trying to grow pumpkins. It seemed so easy, hell, doesn't every compost heap sprout the ubiquitous punkin vine??

Umm.. no.

Last year we had mucho vine, nada punkins.

So this year, while trolling for tips, I came across Possumchops. She runs a fabo site about growing and using vegies from her own garden.

Anyhoo.. we have been discussing the vagaries of punkin sex, and this is what she recommends:

This is what a boy flower looks like. You'll see the long stem and the typical male feature on the inside of the flower.
I don't have any girl flowers, as all the very early ones are being killed off by the rain. This is a photo of one at its very early stages, before the flower is finished developing, but I will take a guess I will lose it too with the wet. But you can see the little bulb of the baby pumpkin is formed before pollination occurs.



And here's one we successfully prepared earlier. Pollinated by Grumbles himself, just pull off a boy flower from the vine and poke a girl flower gently, making sure the two parts on the inside touch.


Tada!



How kinky is THAT!!!.

So, tonight after work, I am off for some hout punkin lovin'. And hopefully lots of punkies for recipes in Winter.

9 comments:

Lucy said...

Sensational!

Now I see that my zuchinni plant is all boys, too. Mmmm....

Lucy said...

Why is zucchini so damn hard to spell?

the girl with pointy sticks said...

You are mental LOL

grocer said...

larf, i did.
i suspect that's what's wrong with the passionfruit vine down the road too.
and perhaps my chilli bush.
hmmm
have to go investimigating!

Possumchops said...

ROFL!! I feel so special today! I hope it helps everyone out. My next project is to find out how to increase the number of girl flowers, because I see my zucchini's are male dominated as well.

purple goddess said...

possumchops says: "zucchini's are male dominated as well."

Is that like a glass ceiling thing??

Jazz said...

Whoa. Pumpkin sex... How do they do it when you're not there to play pimp?

neil said...

You can't call that sex, it's just a hand job...

purple goddess said...

Neil,

Let me assure you, in my best Nigella fashion, that **insert pouting, breathy voice**

Plucking the tumescent male from the quivering, moist vine and plunging him, thick and hard into the very centre, the deepest, most luscious parts of the female flower, shaking him to a violent orgasm of pollen and then withdrawing him, his outer leaves losing vitality as his seed is shed....

is NO hand job, baby ;)