At Long Last

Yesterday I recieved a packet of seed for South African flat white pumpkin. This ends a three year search. I've wanted some ever since reading authentic African recipes.

My druggest is Afrikaans, and we've been trying to get her mother to ship them. There were several misstarts, due to language problems. But at long last the seed arrived yesterday. It's commercial seed, identified as Flat White Boer A.

I contacted Ballstraathof, the seed house, about whether these were hybrid or open pollinated. Given the variety name I would have guessed hybrid. Happy surprise #2: "All our packet varieties, unless specifically stated, are open pollinates as we feel strongly that many of the "old" varieties are the best suited for home garden use as they have built up natural resistance to diseases over time."

Obviously it's too late to plant them this year. But just wait until next season! Genuine African pumpkin fritters for everybody!

Ok, I'll bite.. What the heck is a SA flat white pumpkin?

It's commonly called a calabaza, Jafo, and is an integral part of much subsaharan African cuisine.

Imagine a small pumpkin that was pushed on from the top. Instead of being ovoid it's more wheel-like. There are a number of pumpkins with that shape, usually with the word "field" or "cheese" as part of their name.

For instance, the Kentucky Flat Tan Field pumpkin has the same shape as the African. But is slightly larger.

Anyway, the African is supposed to be one of the sweetest squashes in the world. Butternut subs in many recipes. But my understanding is that it is, at best, a poor second.

Next year we'll find out for sure.

South African Pumpkin Fritters

5 cups cooked calabaza*
2 cups grated raw calabaza*
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup flour
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 egg
Oil for deep frying
Cinnamon sugar, for dusting

Put the cooked pumpkin in a mixing bowl, mash it with a fork, and set aside. Blanch the grated pumpkin by briefly dipping in boiling water. Drain it and add to the mashed pumpkin. Add the baking powder, flour, ground cinnamon, salt, and egg to the mixture and beat until it is smooth.

Heat oil for deep frying (375). When hot, drop in the batter, a tablespoonful at a time. Be careful not to place too many in the oil at once. Cook the fritters until golden brown on each side, turning once. Drain on absorbent paper. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Serve warm.

Variation: Add a pinch of lemon zest, grating of nutmeg, and a tbls sugar to batter before frying.

*Butternut squash or sugar pumpkin substitutes

Jessica Harris
The Africa Cookbook

OMGoodness how fortunate you are!!! Those fritters will be so good when made up with the real thing! I am going to try making them with the pumpkins or butternut from my garden.

OK, now let me be the very first to beg for just a few seeds if they grow good for you next year, I'll pay whatever you think they should go for!

Is this what they look like?

Very similar, Janie. What variety is that one (there are several white pumpkins)?

These flat ones tend to be sweeter and less fibrous then the big, round pumpkins. Indeed, the pastry chef at Blackberry Farm, a very upscale inn in Walland, TN(a weekend there can easily run $5,000), told Food Arts magazine that the Flat Tan is the best culinary pumpkin you can get.

My friend John Coykendall grows them for her, and told me the full name is Kentucky Flat Tan Field when he sent me seed earlier this year. It being a Kentucky heirloom just made it that much more appealing.

But y'all know about my non-garden this season.

I have to double check with John as to which species the Flat Tan is, so I can maintain purity of them both. Seed to Seed lists the Flat White Boer as Cucurbita maxima, and the Flat Tan Field as C. moschata. If that's the case, I can grow them both safely, as they won't cross.

I Googled South African flat white pumpkin pics and that was the first image it brought up.
I think it is Flat White Boer Squash

A unique South African Pumpkin that has sweet oragne flesh

Brook,

Since you mentioned cross pollination, and it was brought up in another thread a few weeks back, I am wondering will I be able to learn anything about that at the festival? Or is this something I should do an on-line search for info on? I am not very sure about the exact process, but I know I have already jeapordized my tomatoes this year as they are all planted in the same area, I know they've been cross pollinated.

I am sorry to hear you could not garden this season, how about a little fall garden? Is it too late for that up your way? I put my seed and plants in the ground Sunday for ours. I plan on doing more when our tomatoes are done, I will go in with a few rows of turnips and collard greens. Yummy! I hate to hear anyone that loves to garden being unable to do so.

By the way do you use a tiller? I have heard that tillers will run the earthworms off, so I try and do it all by shovel and hoe (and boy did I have some hard yard to dig up and prepare, we have a layer of shale that is approx. 1 inch thick imagine that!!!), this last little plot I broke down and let my neighbor till, then I did all the rest (mixing in horse manure and compost) by hand. I then added a nice batch of earthworms to the area. I hope that one till job won't run off the existing worms! What do you think? I just have to go on instinct in alot of what I do and hope for the best. My next door neighbors are convienced that I have a green thumb, I just smile and nod, but boy if they only knew-it's more like being a mother hen to my plants But hey it feels good to be esteemed as having a green thumb, so I let 'em believe it

By the way I am thinking of ordering a book from the bookclub called "Grow Vegetables" By:Alan Buckingham if you think that would help me please let me know. If there are others you believe would be more helpful then please I welcome your advice.

Which brings me to just one more question. When I went to ChefTalk to see about placing an order with Amazon I clicked on the buy amazon icon is that good for any book I order or just the cookbook on the screen of cheftalk? I just need to know how that works.

Thanks, Cathy

Supposedly the sweetest flesh, Janie. From what I understand it blows the Brix numbers off the chart.

There will be plenty of people to hold private discussions with, Cathy. So, while cross pollination and the like isn't on the agenda, per se, I'm sure you'll go away with a notebook filled.

I would also recommend Seed To Seed, as it is the bible of the seed saving fraternity. It has a lot of information on plant isolation and other seed purity info.

As a general rule, different species will not cross with each other. But the same species can. Thus, because zucchini and acorn squash are both C. pepo they can cross if grown together. But, because the Flat White Boer and the KY Flat Tan Field are different species they won't.

A lot of this is intimidating at first. But you'll be surprised how quickly it becomes understandable.

The odds are, with your tomatoes, that they have not crossed. If anyone cares I can explain why. But the point is, why take a chance, when in just one more season you can take steps that assure purity.

I'm not familiar with the Buckingham book, so can't say yea or nay to it. With any vegetable gardening books you have to first make a general decision: Are you going to grow organically? With man-made chemicals? Or a combination of the two? That decision really determines which books make sense for you.

The second decision: Grow using traditional rows? Grow using wide rows & blocks? Grow intensively. This, again, will determine which books you find useful, and the techniques and methods that are most appealing.

For instance, there are pros and cons re: tilling (as you've discovered) But they have more to do with one's orientation to the soil then with any effects they have on earthworms. I do a lot of tilling, for instance. And I'm covered up with worms.

Thank you Brook for the all the useful info. I will def. bring a notebook to the festival as you mentioned, another good reason I am glad I asked you, you can contiune to let me know what you believe would be beneficial to carry along. Thanks!

I am relieved you till and still have plenty of worms! I was scarred I had made some horrid mistake, but my poor old wrists just kill me as it is and are worse than ever since gardening so intensively I just figured if the tilling scarred them all away I would add more! I love my worms,

Did you see Chubbs new avatar? Yeah it looks like a worm or a crawfish fixin' to tweak the end his nose, I tell ya' what are we gonna do with him? Hee-hee I just imagine his next avatar!!! Oh lawdy........... gotta hand it to him for bein' entertaining though!

Sounds really cool, KYH! Can't wait to hear more next summer when you get to experiment with them for supper!