I Had A Cracked But Delicious Pumpkin!

The pretty side of my harvested pumpkin

My heart really sank when I alighted from my sister's car and saw my pumpkin last Saturday. I had never come across one that had cracks on its skin like mine before. Nor had I been warned that pumpkins could crack sometimes under certain conditions. I was rather shocked and sad. My heart just sank at the sight of it. 

Without a second thought, I dashed back into my sister's car, took out a big, sharp scissors and immediately cut it off from its hard and woody stemmed vine. It was a rather small pumpkin and gave a reading of a mere 1.22 kg when placed on my kitchen scale. I held it with both my hands as though it was a precious gem. I examined the whole of my pumpkin carefully and in detail. Visually, it looked pretty normal except for the cracks. The skin's orange colour was quite even and beautiful. I tried to pierce its skin. It was so hard that I almost got my fingernails hurt. I buried my fingers into the cracked scars. They felt dry and hard. My heart lifted a little bit with hope. Relieved. It could still be edible, I thought to myself. Since there were no signs of it rotting. I gave it a few hard knocks with my knuckles. It sounded full and solid, not hollow. I was quite puzzled. A lot of people had told me before that pumpkins should sound hollow when they are mature. My pumpkin's skin and stem had indicated that it had matured. But somehow, the sound indicated otherwise. I had got to find out soonest possible.

So, first thing in the morning on the next day, I went straight to my kitchen for a knife. I laid my pumpkin on the wooden cutting board which I had placed on the concrete floor of my backyard. I was not going to cut it inside my kitchen. In case there are wriggling insect larvae coming out from it. It would be scary to have them wriggle or jump about in my kitchen.

I dissected my pumpkin into half. To my surprise, there were nothing that I had feared or imagined. No inner rotting. No larvae. I was relieved. My heart jumped with joy. I was right about my judgement on my pumpkin the day before. My pumpkin was perfectly great despite the cracks. The flesh was thick ( no wonder it sounded full and solid ) and had a nice looking bright golden yellow colour. Though its soft seeds indicated that it had yet to reach full maturity, the harvest was timely. The flesh looked great.

I cut the flesh into four portions and gave them to four of my siblings to cook. All of them agreed unanimously that it was one of the best tasting pumpkin treats they had ever tasted so far. They even complimented that its sweetness and texture were second to none! 

I could never have been more contented and pleased. Thanks to My Dear Cracked Pumpkin ( whose remains are only in memories and pictures now ) !

My dear poor pumpkin with a long horizontal and a slight vertical crack on its skin.

Nice colour and thick flesh within.