Size is everything with these pumpkins (and there’s not much else)

This is me, wheeling a barrowful of big, orange pumpkins away from our plot at the garden.

You might think I have something to boast about, having grown such large specimens, but unfortunately all is not what it seems. For a start, these pumpkins came from several seedlings which popped up in our front garden at home in Camberwell. The strange thing is that Micky and I don’t eat pumpkins which look like this – so how come they popped up in the front garden? I don’t know.

Second, as suggested in the heading to this article, size is everything with these pumpkins. Flavour isn’t. Micky tried very hard to add some flavour to them with various additives, but the taste was still bland. She made soup, she mashed them, she baked them and the outcome was still – bland.

On the day of the recent garden working bee, Micky cut one of the pumpkins into 10 pieces, and I offered them ‘free to good homes’, with the warning that I made no claims about the quality of the flavour.

All but one of the slices were taken home. I’d be interested to know if those who cooked and ate the pumpkins agree with my assessment of them. And also – does anyone know what variety they are?

David Ashton – plot 3, with Micky