It's PUMPKIN time!

No, it's not Halloween..but it is pumpkin time around here!
I planted lots of sugar pumpkins this year. They are of course ready and have been sitting on my kitchen table for a week.
The time has come to 'can' them up!
I read up on some of the easiest ways to can them, more so on how to peel them and cut them up. Suffice it to say, cutting them into junks while raw is not too much of an option unless you want to stand there and peel and wear your hands out all day.
NOT ME!

The better choice (for me at least) was to cut them in half, gut them (sounds gross don't it?), cut them into large chunks and bake them till they were semi soft. Then you scoop the pumpkin out and jar it, then pressure can for 90 mins on 10lbs psi for a quart
(The USDA does not recommend making pumpkin butter or pumpkin puree due to it's density)

I plan to scoop and fill the jar to 1/2, add medium syrup then pressure can. I hope this will negate some of that density. Either way..I'm canning it up! .
(I'll also have less pumpkin per jar, so I'll be doing quart jars instead of the pints)

Let me tell you, cutting pumpkins is hard!
But, all my pumpkins are cut, gutted and chunked into sections and are now in the oven. They do have to bake a long time so I've got several hours before the canning process starts. It's just good to know the hard part is over! WHEW!
There is a faster way to 'precook' them, and that is with a microwave. Since I detest using a microwave ..this was not an option for me.
Besides all that, the microwave that I DO have is extremely small so I could only do 1 pumpkin at a time! It would probably take me the same amount of time as baking the whole lot at once!
Now it's off to find something else to do with my time while the pumpkins bake.
TA TA for now!