I was optimistic about my pumpkins at the beginning of the season, then I was a bit pessimistic, and in the end, I was sorely disappointed. Not only did I only get one fruit per plant, but the fruits I got were barely larger than an apple. Overall, I got only 4,5 kg Hokkaido pumpkins, which barely covered the costs of seeds and certainly did not cover the labor. My neighbor, whom I gave some surplus seedlings in the spring, has the same experience. One family friend, whom I gave some seedlings as well, did have a good harvest, though. But I do not know what the microclimate in her garden is; it is a few hundred m away from mine, and it might just be that she has slightly higher temperatures. One to two degrees °C certainly do play a role.

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They were rock-hard and I got about 2,5 kg of edible flesh out of them. Not worth doing something big, so I decided to make just mustard from all of it. The recipe is based on the one that I posted last year, only I changed the ingredients a bit:

grated pumpkin  – 2600 g
3 yellow bell peppers
vinegar – 490 g
sunflower oil – 325 g
honey – 180 g
salt – 80 g
white pepper – 2 teaspoons
soy sauce – 6,5 soup spoons
shroomce – 3 soup spoons
mustard seed – 240 g

I also had to add some water; the pumpkins did contain too little on their own. The resulting mustard is spicier than the one I made last year, and it also is not as smooth – I forgot to soak the mustard seeds the day prior, and they were a bit tough with just a few hours soak. But it is tasty and I got 23 glasses in the end.

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It was a lot of work; I spent the whole day with it, and today, I spent another hour sterilizing them so they form a vacuum seal and, hopefully, hold longer. I will give some away to people who I know like it, but even with that, I should have enough mustard for over a year, and the added vallue almost, though not entirely, makes it worth the effort.

For the next year, I have already bought pumpkin seeds exclusively from the one supplier that had consistent and quick germination across. I cannot change the weather, but whilst that did play a role, it was not all. That I had trouble germinating the seeds in the spring, and thus most of my plants started to grow fairly late, also played a role, as well as the fact that I planted them into uncultivated parts of my garden in the experimental three sisters system.

Speaking of which, the sweet corn was a complete disaster.

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I got barely one dinner’s worth. Out of more than 100 plants, just a handful produced female blossoms, very late after the male ones and thus the pollination was very poor on those. I am seriously considering if it is worth trying corn the next year too, or if I should forgo this crop completely. When I was a kid, corn was actually grown in the fields around here, and it did produce edible ears regularly, so I am not entirely sure what I am doing wrong. I had one good harvest a few years ago, and ever since, it has gotten worse and worse each year.

The next year, I am planning to grow pumpkins on my prime soil, and I am contemplating whether to try for the three-sisters system there, or if I should plant just the pumpkins and ignore everything else.