Mystery Plant reveal

Last week, we harvested our second 'fruit' from the mystery compost plant.  Here it is (with E's hands on it for size reference.)  Any last guesses?

Front (or top)

Back (or bottom)

And with the top cut open, we determine that it is...

A PUMPKIN!

A very big, green pumpkin, at that!  We scooped out the seeds and cleaned them off for roasting.  Then we cooked the pumpkin.  One half was baked and one half was steamed.  (We don't own a pot or pan that would hold both halves at once.)  

With the seeds scooped out

Once the pumpkin was cooked, the flesh was scooped out and pureed.  We got 2.5 large jars full of pumpkin!  Then I roasted the sunflower seeds and the kids gobbled them right up.  (I think that was baby E's dinner that night.)  

And of course, when you have pumpkin, you clearly need to make a...

Pumpkin pie!

Actually, 2 pumpkin pies were made.  :)  And there is still almost 2 full jars of pumpkin left to use!  I think pumpkin bread is on the agenda.  Anyone have another pumpkin recipe they'd like to share with us?

And the mystery pumpkin plant?  It's huge... and a lot more flowers have bloomed.  (We've seen some bees hanging out in them as well.)  We very well might have more pumpkins in our future.

So one might ask, did I recently buy a pumpkin and put the seeds in the compost for them to grow?  Nope.  These seeds came from last year's fall pumpkins that the kids painted.  Once the pumpkins started getting yucky, I chucked them in the compost pile.  Apparently they liked it there.  :)