It's pumpkin-picking time, and as reported in Garden Detective: The Column, reader Valerie Grant of Roosevelt has picked herself a doozy! Back in the Spring, Ms. Grant planted a few "curry pumpkin" seeds, just as she’d done in the past. But this year, her gourds have grown beyond her expectations. The largest measured 31 inches in length and 54 inches across, and weighed in at 70 pounds.

“I got a beach towel, laid it on the lawn and rolled the pumpkin onto it,” Grant explained when asked how she managed to harvest the giant. “My friend came over and helped me take it inside the house.”

Grant plans to make pumpkin soup on Sunday for the congregation at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Roosevelt.

Pumpkins are technically fruits, as are tomatoes, but for our purposes, we'll call them vegetables because that's how most people view them. They're also among the most unappreciated grown foods in our area. Most Long Islanders purchase pumpkins along with other gourds and chrysanthemums to add a touch of autumn to their decor. Not many actually eat them.

I grew up in an Italian household, where pretty much everything was edible so long as it was fried up with some peppers. Pumpkin actually is very good that way, and I always save some of the innards of my jack-o-lantern for just such a side dish. The rest I slice (or scoop) and store in the freezer. When the urge for pumpkin pie strikes, I bake it at 375 degrees for a half hour and then puree it in a blender with brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of cloves. I pour in a can of evaporated milk and a couple of eggs, mix thoroughly and pour into a prepared pie crust. I toss it in a 375-degree preheated oven for about 45 minutes, until the center is firm.

Here's a recipe for Peppery Pumpkin Risotto.

More pumpkin recipes from Newsday.

Share your recipes here.

HEAVIEST PUMPKIN

Larry Checkon holds the Guinness World Record for growing the heaviest pumpkin. It weighed 1,469 pounds when he entered it in the Pennsylvania Giant Pumpkin Growers Association Weigh-off, on October 1, 2005. Later, Scott Cully carved the world's largest Jack-o-lantern from it.

If you grew pumpkins this year, tell us about them. If not, you can still pick your own at one of Long Island's u-pick farms.

More Pumpkin World Records

Stephen Clarke holds the Guinness World Record for being the fastest to carve a face into a pumpkin, completing the creative task in just 24.03 seconds. Read more about Clarke here.

Planning a pumpkin party for the kids? Check out the ideas at Family Fun.

Creepy Stuff

Since we're on a pumpkin/Halloween roll, check out these actual, unedited photos of the Planting Fields Arboretum ghost. My daughter Justine visited with some friends last year and took some photos while she was there. We all swear we saw a ghost-like shadow in the background of one of them, but she accidentally deleted the shot a few days later. Some might say that was no accident.