Making Pumpkin Powder

The day after Halloween I contacted Home Depot to see if their pumpkins were on sale. They told me they were free now and to come get all I wanted 

I decided to make pumpkin powder, thanks to a boost of 'You can do it' byPamela G. Peters (Grannie Pam) and Survivor Jane

Ken cutting up the pumpkins for me. The hacksaw worked perfectly!  You can also use a keyhole saw if you find you need more control.

Scoop out the strings and seeds.  I didn't get too fixated on getting 'every' little piece of string out.  It will also bake and blend well.

I then placed the pumpkins on parchment paper and cooked them at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Soft and squishy, they are now ready to come out of the oven.

Scoop out all the pumpkin from the rind

Loaded and ready to go!

Mash it up and pour off any additional liquid (if you have any)

I put the pumpkin on my flat plastic inserts (the ones you use for beef jerky or fruit leathers and loaded 8 trays .

You will know it's done when the pumpkin breaks into pieces. If it still bends, dehydrate it longer. The final trays took a good day and a half.

When completely dehydrated, the pieces should be brittle and break easily. Now just blend, blend, blend until you get a powder consistency.

Voila! 7 Pie Pumkins created about 3 cups of Pumpkin Powder. 1/2 cup of pumpkin powder and 2 cups of water will rehydrate into a yummy pie 

Now to clean the seeds! I spent about 30 minutes squishing the seeds from the strings and made a huge mess!  I then put the seeds in water to clean them. Oh look, I missed some! This is where the magic happened  I swished the gloppy mess around in the water and most of the seeds fell right out. This is definitely how I will be cleaning my seeds from now on!

To bake the seeds, I coated the seeds in olive oil and sprinkled a little extra salt on them.  Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes, depending on how brown you like them. I took a spatula and stirred them around, on the pan about 5 minutes after I put them in the oven.  If you like your seeds a little saltier, add some extra salt to the water and let them soak for a little while. Don't forget to save some seeds for next year !  I fold little wax paper envelopes so I can easily put seeds in the freezer. Some store them in mason jars but I prefer to keep mine in the freezer.