Thank you Dawn! It's very new and green. I'd say it's only been growing for under 2 weeks. There is a pic of it on the side in my basil thread. Yes, I talk too much.

But, check it out...I found a link to a recipe with a RAVE review on Cook's Illustrated. It calls for one seven pound green pumpkin. PERFECT!

I think I will try this out and let you all know how I like it.

Here's the review:

"Thanks for the link Katharine but after trying this recipe I'm never ripening another pumpkin ever again! OMG - this recipe is FANTASTIC! Now I'm sorry I don't have more green ones!

This is one of those dishes you get hooked on! Very New Orleans tasting - almost like a super rich, garlicky, artichoke/shrimp/crab gratin. I could see myself sitting in a Louisiana restaurant trying to figure out the 'secret ingredient'. The green pumpkin is very, very subtle.

Since I had to dig up potatoes this morning & didn't have time to hover over the stove I decided to steam the peeled pumpkins instead (which btw peel as easy as an apple when they're green). I set the timer & came back in 45 minutes. I let the pumpkin cool a bit and instead of squeezing the juice off through a colander I wrung it out in a dish towel instead - which seriously cuts down on the simmer time required in the second step. The rest of the recipe I followed exactly - what a treat!

Thank you to Emeril's Ma Ma! YUM YUM!

Michelle."

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Pumpkin, shrimp, and crab casserole

I have about 30 volunteer plants of what I thought was squash that washed down the hill from our chicken run. Tons of male flowers, lots of female flowers. I have fertilized them and taken care of them just as if I had planted them. Because they were very dense, I have cut back some of the foliage to let in the sunlight.

Yesterday, I found several nice fist-sized squash, so I picked them and brought them into the house. I googled pics of small, round squash but could find nothing that looked like the ones I had picked. I was trying to find out when they should be picked - what they looked like, etc.

Suddenly, it dawned on me that these were probably not squash (we feed our chickens leftovers and unsellable veggies & fruits from a local produce stand where I work on occasion), as I couldn't remember any time that we had fed the girls any small, round squash. However, we had fed them several PUMPKINS last fall!

I quickly looked up pics of immature pumpkin and THERE THEY WERE! I felt badly that I had picked 2 of them so early, so looked it up to see if you could eat unripe pumpkin. YES! That young, you can prepare them like regular squash, which I decided to do so as not to waste them. THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!! I sliced them about 1/4" and sautéed them in coconut oil with just a bit of Himalayan pink salt and some freshly ground black pepper. That's all I did. I just couldn't believe they were so delicious!!! So for dinner, guess what I'm having . . .

So all those plants up on the hill, I'm using for the huge yellow flowers and the small unripe pumpkin for a side dish. I had transplanted 4 of the seedlings earlier to a nice plot in my organic garden - so those I will let grow to maturity. I really don't need 30 plantings of ripe pumpkin!

What a tasty surprise! You might want to try it . . . just cook them like you would in your favorite squash recipe.

Thanks, Okiedawn!

I'm glad you found this thread and that it worked out for you, Sharon!

Let me add, I cooked a young acorn squash (vine destroyed by a vine borer) and my husband didn't get any, I ate it all. It was so good!

Indeed. I would take an immature acorn squash over a zucchini any day!

This is so good to know! I'm excited!

Amy, That is good to know, and I hope Ron didn't mind too much. lol. George, I feel the same way about zucchini! It is not my favorite of all the many kinds of squash available, especially if I miss harvesting one and it turns into a huge monster. I feed those to the chickens.

Dawn