You should be aware of this

Cut back the Hokkaido plant

Hokkaido tendrils can be cropped anytime, anywhere. It is best to prune the main shoot after the third or fifth secondary shoot, then the flower roots will also be higher. Do not worry, the plant will not hold it against you and still grow steadily. Use a sharp knife or knife to trim the shoots Secateurs, small nail scissors are sufficient for young shoots. By the way, you can remove some flowers - especially the male ones. This gives the other flowers more nutrients, which in turn can be invested in the fruit set - in this way the fruits become larger.

Flowers are edible

Do not throw away the removed flowers because they are edible! Pumpkin blossoms (as well as zucchini blossoms, which also belong to the cucurbit family) can be wonderfully filled and prepared with different foods. Incidentally, fried pumpkin blossoms are particularly tasty. Make sure that you only use the male flowers if possible, because the fruits develop from the female ones.

Delicious ideas with pumpkin flowers

• Fill with sheep or goat cheese and bake in batter
• Fill with finely chopped fish fillet and cook in the oven
• fry or deep-fry
• Salad made from wild herbs and (filled) pumpkin blossoms
• Linguine ai fiori di zucca (pasta with pumpkin blossom sauce)

How to cut a Hokkaido pumpkin into pieces

Cutting pumpkins into bite-sized pieces is often an act of strength. Also the Hokkaido pumpkin is not easy to break down. You need a very sharp knife for this and stick the tip of the handle into the pumpkin. Now cut from the base of the stem to the bottom and separate out individual slices. Remove the seeds inside and cut the pulp into small cubes. Now you can Freeze the pumpkin or continue processing immediately.

Tips & Tricks

Boil the pumpkin pieces in water for 20 minutes and drain it off. Mash the pumpkin to a coarse pulp and freeze it. You can later process the pulp into a delicious pumpkin soup in next to no time - an excellent and tasty fast food!