I would say if the flesh froze, it would be mush as soon as it thawed. Otherwise, it should be ok and you can keep it cool but not frozen until Halloween. Hopefully - good luck! Hey maybe you could use the scorched part for a really ugly jack-o-lantern??

Sometimes if the freezing wasn't too bad it will just discolour the frozen part, making it look darker or almost as if it got wet like when wood gets soaked with water, if that makes sense. If that's all that happened it should be okay and will keep for months, although the darkened part will never lighten back up.

But if it got badly frozen, and is at all soft or punky to the touch, then it is toast and will rot very quickly. About the only way to save a badly frozen pumpkin is to keep it very cool so the rot progresses very slowly.

-Don

It looks like it's saveable then. Don, your description of the frozen part is right on. The flesh is still firm - even the skin feels firm, Gil, i think that's its "best side" anyway, so that's where it will be carved. :) I'm giving it to the kids, so they can make it as ugly as they want! LOL

I thought the flesh was firm, but apparently not. It's gone all mushy now. So much for that pumpkin. I guess i'll save what i can and freeze it. Guess i'll have to make sure i remember next time. :/

Ha, wasn't sure what to expect when I opened this thread. LOL!!!! Marcia, thats to bad you lost your only pumpkin.:(

Sierra

I just couldn't call this thread anything else, could i? LOL It just had to be. As for the pumpkin - oh well. Not the biggest deal on earth. :)

What variety of pumpkin are you growing? Zone 3 in NW Ontario probably has much warmer summers than my zone 3 in Edmonton. If you want a nice early-ripening pumpkin, I recommend "New Rocket". I get my seed from Vesey's in PEI, but others probably carry it too. I think they list the pumpkin as setting 15 pound fruit, but I find they are bigger. The two pumpkins I grew this year are 38 pounds and 28 pounds, respectively. Nice thick flesh, so they keep a long time. And they ripen nice and early, so you will probably pick them well before frost threatens (I picked mine in early September).

-Don

I'm not sure the variety, Don. The seeds were given to me by someone who saved them from her pumpkins last year. It may have been Jack-o-lantern, but this one grew pretty big to be Jack-o-lantern. I probably could have picked it earlier but it was covered through our early frosts and i didn't put the tarp back over it this time, so it was my fault. Live and learn! :)