Pumpkin hand pies a savory treat

If you’ve been by Rockin’ S Farms booth at the Woodstock Farmers Market, or stopped by the farm in the Free Home community of Cherokee County, you’ve seen more varieties of pumpkin than perhaps you knew existed. And the pumpkin show didn’t stop just because Halloween has come and gone.

Tim Stewart of Rockin’ S Farms likes growing pumpkins: Jack o’ Lantern pumpkins both big and little, peanut pumpkins (the variety called ‘Galeux d’Eysine’ with its distinctive peanut-like growths all over the skin), Cinderella pumpkins (‘Rouge vif D’Etampes’) that look they like would make perfect tiny coaches for a princess, the North Georgia Candy Roaster (an heirloom variety), white pumpkins, green pumpkins, and plenty of orange pumpkins.

His favorite? The ‘Musquee de Provence’ that he calls “cow patty pumpkin” for its resemblance to you know what. “Each lobe is so heavy you can make a pie from just one. My wife Nichelle likes the Jarrahdale. It’s gray-green and a good keeper.”

The Stewarts like to bake a lobe of pumpkin like a potato and top it with butter, honey or sugar. Or serve the pumpkin wedges with some roasted apple.

Pumpkins are good keepers so you don’t have to deal with them right away. Enjoy them for their decorative qualities but then be sure to enjoy them for their eating qualities as well. “When you get them home, let them cure a little bit. The more they cure, the sweeter they get. Keep them on a porch, out of direct sun and you can keep them for a long, long time.”