Curing, sorting, and storing butternut pumpkins

It's been weeks since we harvested all our pumpkins and brought them back home. Well, twelve days to be precise. Today, I finally brought them indoors.

pumpkins lying around beside the house

The harvesting process that I read on most sites online sounded simple. I thought I followed the general advice but I did something terribly wrong. I tried to cure them on a table in the middle of our backyard, far from any tall trees or buildings, during a rather cold frosty period. I assumed the pumpkins would be resilient and forgot to follow the instructions very clearly, which suggested a curing temperature of 26–29°C (according to the 2010 Ohio Vegetable Production Guide—see p. 230 for suggestions on harvesting and storing 'summer squash', which includes our Walthum Butternut pumpkins). That document even suggests a range for humidity. In most households it's not possible to control the humidity, but I could have at least tried to get close to that temperature range by placing it in the warmest room in the house (i.e., our bedroom) rather than freezing them outside, and letting them get all frosted. My poor punchkins …

pumpkins sorted: right = no damage
middle = some damage
left = considerabel damage

As a result of my carelessness, quite a few of them have started to go bad on the surface. I'm going to try and cook one of the damaged ones soon to check how they are under the skin. It's a bit sad that the tender patches seem to get bigger even when brought indoors, although it happens quite slowly.

Actually, the real reason why I finally mustered the energy to bring the pumpkins in was because it started raining today. I knew that would only do more damage to them … even though I completely forgot the correct curing temperatures, I did remember the importance of keeping the surface dry.

I read the above document again tonight, and at least they will now be stored in the correct temperature range (10–15°C). The house heating is usually set to 16°C at night, and 18°C during the day, but the storage room (where I've put the pumpkins) are at ground level and the room also has the ducted heating vent mostly shut. So I'm guessing it's around 10–15°C in there. Will check it one day with my mobile phone (my only portable thermometer) just to be sure.

hiding under the chairs in our storage room

I'll be eating the pumpkins in the order of most damaged to the least, to ensure we waste as few as possible. And I've learnt my lesson. Canberra is too cold to cure pumpkins outdoors … by the time they're usually harvested, frost has already set in, so it's best to just cure them indoors where they're certain to remain dry and warm. I'll remember that for next year's harvest!