Do you have a favourite way that you like to cook pumpkins?
When there’s a large quantity available then it’s time to get creative in how to cook and enjoy these easy-to-grow source of Vitamins A, B2, C, and E and minerals iron, copper, manganese and potassium.
When my older brother was single, he was desperate enough to join the National Party as a means of meeting women when he was working in rural NSW. As part of the welcome package for joining the political party, was a copy of Flo Bjelke-Petersen’s pumpkin scones recipe. Definitely an incentive for single blokes to sign up.
In my previous blog I mentioned that an area at the rear of the piggs peake winery was being transformed into a productive part of the kitchen garden. Several months later and the area is a mass of pumpkins, watermelons and sweet potatoes. The first harvest of the pumpkins has been carried out and Yellow Billy Restaurant have taken on various ways to use pumpkins within the menu.
The beauty of pumpkins is that they often pop up in a garden long after the seeds have found their way into a compost bin. Often the compost generated pumpkins are the hardiest and easiest to grow. They almost grow like weeds, as shown in the pic of one growing in a crack of some paving bricks.
Last summer a pumpkin that had grown out of some compost that I’d used in the Yellow Billy kitchen garden developed celebrity status as the Photo Pumpkin. Staff members and patrons of the restaurant were lining up to have their photos taken with the Photo Pumpkin (maybe after a couple of glasses of wine).
One of the people photographed with the celebrity pumpkin is head chef Darren Price. Darren is preparing a very special menu for the Kings Table Banquet Lunch on Sunday 28th January with bookings available through yellowbillyrestaurant.com
The banquet is also a celebration of the time that Darren has contributed to the growth of the restaurant to a One Hat status. As the banquet is part of a farewell for Darren, there is also a new Photo Pumpkin growing in the kitchen garden allowing the opportunity for you to have your photo taken with Darren and the Photo Pumpkin on the day.
So, revisit our website again soon to check our blog piggs in the garden and we’ll be back with further updates on the progress of our gardens as we move through the season of summer.
cheers,
andrew