Pumpkin in the Freezer.... Check!

Last weekend I bought 2 big Rumbo pumpkins from the Farmer's Market. They weighed in at 20.8 lbs and 21.5 lbs.
Here's how I got them ready for the freezer...

First I cut them in half.... being very careful not to cut my finger off.

Cool picture of the inside of the pumpkin, huh? Gosh, I love the macro setting on my camera!

Then I scooped out the seeds and smootz from the inside of the pumpkin.

I put each half on a baking sheet (cut side down), covered it with aluminum foil, put about a cup of water in the bottom of the baking sheet, and put it in a 350* oven for a little over an hour or until a fork could easily go through the skin and flesh. Then I let them cool.

After the pumpkin was cool, I scooped out the flesh (I quartered the pumpkin to make it easier to handle) and put the flesh into my food processor. Puree until smooth.

Here's the puree from one pumpkin... about 24 cups!

I scoop one cup of pumpkin puree into ziploc bags and lay them flat to freeze. This makes thawing much faster and makes them easier to fit in my freezer. Once they're frozen I put them in gallon sized freezer bags and put them in the chest freezer.

From my 40 pounds of pumpkin, I got about 50 cups of puree!! Bring on the pies, muffins, cookies, and anything else I can dream up to make with pumpkin.