
Also called pompoenen, flespompoen, butternut, hokkaido, kastanjepompoen.
In the Netherlands, pumpkin & squash are in season August to November, at their best in September and October. After the harvest, Dutch stores carry them until February. Pumpkin & squash are in season now, in November.
Dutch pumpkins are harvested from August to November and cured in the sun, after which the hard-skinned kinds keep until February. Hokkaido and butternut are the ones most Dutch growers sell.
A hard rind, a dry corky stalk and a dull rather than shiny skin mean it has cured and will keep.
Beta-carotene, which gives the orange colour, plus fibre, potassium and vitamin C. The seeds add zinc, magnesium and protein.
To get the most: Roast with oil or add butter: beta-carotene needs fat to be absorbed, and cooking frees more of it. Toast the seeds rather than throwing them away.
On our nutrient density chart, a normal serving of boiled pumpkin (200 g) gives about three-quarters of a day's vitamin A and about a fifth of a day's potassium, counting what your body absorbs.
Content per NEVO, the Dutch food composition database. This describes what the food contains, not what it does for you.
Roast in wedges with the skin on (hokkaido skin is edible), or simmer into soup. Toast the seeds.
Toast the seeds, eat the skin of hokkaido and small squashes, and simmer the stringy middle into stock.
37 producers in The Field Guide sell pumpkin & squash, according to their own website or shop list, each checked against our inclusion criteria and listed by province. Another 144 growers passed our bar for this food group; we have not yet recorded what each of them grows, so ask them or search the map.
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