The reward of planting a garden!

In late spring I planted my tomatoes and pumpkins. I wasn't sure if the pumpkins would be ready before halloween but they surprised me!!! Here in this picture it shows about half of the pumpkins we got. The plant overtook my entire garden and in fact killed my green beans. So next time I will have to remember to space out my pumpkins from the rest. My mother in law used to make pumpkin jam in Finland and it was so good. I thought, "why don't we do that in America?" I mean we eat a lot of pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies. Why don't we eat pumpkin jam.

I found a recipe for pumpkin butter that was written by a woman in England. I guess they don't eat pumpkin pie much so when they do get pumpkins they are creative with what to do with them. I copied the recipe and made about 20 jars. It is so good!!!! I have given it away to many neighbors and friends and have heard nothing but compliments. 2 have made a batch themselves and one friend created a recipe from it. Pancakes with pumpkin butter and whipped cream... Easy pumpkin pie... Also my butter is very healthy and has a ton of fiber. You can even substitue sugar for a synthetic sweetener.