Can you eat immature pumpkins?

My daughter planted some pumpkins. We planted 3 on a small hill in the garden and they initially took off and looked great. Then after the vines got around 8ft long the leaves near the starting point started to get yellow and die. Each vine has 1 pumpkin on it, and the leaves towards the growing end of the vine still look ok, but whatever is happening (disease, water issues, etc) seems to be creeping along the vine, and I suspect it will die before the pumpkin is ripe.

Can we still use the pumpkins if they are not fully ripen yet? Will they ripen off the vine? I've got almost no experience with pumpkins. Thanks ahead of time for any advice.

yup, edible all the way through (timewise). i’m assuming they’ve been around long enough to harden a bit? not at ‘zucchini’ stage anymore? it’s tricky finding the best way to use a squash that’s half-ripe, but in soup and grated in quickbreads are two things i found acceptable.

my daughter planted ‘pumpkins’ this year too, but they’ve turned into little pumpkin-y gourds that we probably won’t try to eat. got the plant at school.

we often use half-ripe winter squash (adult size, not hard or dark colored yet) just like zucchini when vines get accidentally pulled or when i've just had enough of pumpkins for the year. if you like Asian food look for pretty much any Chinese recipe involving "gourds" (maybe not bitter gourd!). i often slice them into matchsticks and make something like this (sorry for the super long post, the recipe is from an old but absolutely stellar book and I'm shocked nobody's put all the recipes online)
https://www.npr.org/2012/08/28/160125138/zucchini-you-actually-cant-resist
(it's not particularly Chinese, although that book is a great source of good Sichuan recipes-- and everyone loves that zucchini when i make it, even those who hate zucchini....)

I'm sure that I read about fermenting baby pumpkins by just burying them in kraut or kimchi, but I'm not finding the reference now.

greg mosser wrote:my daughter planted ‘pumpkins’ this year too, but they’ve turned into little pumpkin-y gourds that we probably won’t try to eat. got the plant at school.

If they are pumpkins (rather than some sort of inedible squash) then baking them whole in individual portions is yummy! It is a pity not to use her harvest.


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oh, we’ll open one up and check, but i suspect it’s actually a decorative but inedible gourd. they’re really tiny.

Good to hear they will still be edible. And yes.. they are at least somewhat hardened. Almost 1ft in diameter, so decent sized pumpkins. We will probably make pumpkin pie or add some pumpkin to some kind of cookie or roll.

Carol Deppe in one of her books suggests cutting, skinning, dehydrating the flesh, then adding to soups throughout the year.

I haven't tried it.

Laura Ingalls Wilder talks about slicing up green pumpkins and making it like you would Apple Pie. Supposedly it tasted nearly as good. Can’t say as I’ve ever been brave enough to try it myself though. 😂

Mari Johnson wrote:Laura Ingalls Wilder talks about slicing up green pumpkins and making it like you would Apple Pie. Supposedly it tasted nearly as good. Can’t say as I’ve ever been brave enough to try it myself though. 😂

In Hawaii, where apples can be hard to find, people sometimes make pie with chayote (mirliton). Where I am we do something similar with green papayas. These "neutral" veggies can sub in for a lot of things....

I have grated and dehydrated early squash in the past. I keep a jar of it in the fridge and crush it into soups or other dishes when I want to thicken them a bit.

greg mosser wrote:oh, we’ll open one up and check, but i suspect it’s actually a decorative but inedible gourd. they’re really tiny.

Our local UK supermarket sells 'Munchkin' edible pumpkins, orange ones size of a man's fist.
I grew some of the seeds, only managed immature fruit before slugs started taking too much interest; cooked what I could rescue. Still here!