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We have received some pumpkin from a grower. They are the green ones with orange firm flesh. We have had these before (but smaller) and they were dark green like these are when the white skin is peeled off.
This white skin is almost like ricepaper and the thickness of A4 paper and peels off the green pumpkin skin quite easily after steaming.
I am wondering if this is something the pumpkins have been dipped into to stop water loss so they last longer in storage. Since I have seen other green pumpkin without this white skin I feel it might be artificial but my wife swears it is a natural part of the pumpkin and eats it quite happily.
As you can see from the boxed pumpkins, they are both a green-grey color and from the steamed picture you can see what color they are after the white skin has been peeled off.
I am hoping someone can tell me if this is a normal variety of pumpkin or something some pumpkins normally have or if I should peel the white skin off before I eat it.
Thanks.
I agree with Gemstone, that looks like a squash and I think that colouring of the skin on them is natural. I've seen squashes of all shapes with skins that were white and every other colour under the sun and the majority of them have orange flesh. Except for tender small zucchini and scalloped Pattypan squashes which I eat whole and raw I never eat the skins of any other kinds of squashes or pumpkins. However, I do wash and scrub the skins very well before cutting up, prepping and cooking squash. The left over skin gets discarded after I've eaten the cooked flesh.
Thanks for your comments. So i t looks as if my fears are ungrounded.
It is only the very thinnest part (paper thin?) of the skin which is white and the rest of it is the dark green like I showed in the cooked pumpkin picture. I tend to eat the skins of pumpkins because I think the roughage will be good for me. That has to be balanced against the other stuff which may not be good for me! (see below)
The other thing is, the white outer skin seems to peel off quite easily and I have never come across this before (possbly because I have not had this type of pumpkin before). This is why I suspected it might be an unnatural coating of some kind (plus of course that I am in a non-USA country and many things are messed up, genetically modified, grown on rough inner city land, grown under power pylons, and otherwise altered). I kind of expect anything with no seeds to be GM'ed to oblivion, etc. So, strange oddities (corn, fruit and veg without seeds, etc, not just grapes which have been seedless for probably decades everywhere) are pretty much the norm at the moment and I suspect yours will be too soon.
I am a little(haha!) fixed in my ideas so I need a lot of convincing this is a natural pumpkin.
Your squash appears to be sweet white Shokichi Shiro Kabocha squash, also known as and marketed as Japanese Pumpkin. Shokichi Shiro Kabocha is a F1 hybrid, this winter squash is new on the market and is a new relative to the kabocha family.
Some Kabochas are found with entirely dark green outer skins, some have dark green and white stripes on the skin, and some kabochas have a white(ish) membranous layer of skin covering the layer of dark green skin. It is safe to eat Kabocha skins but it is just tough and fibrous enough in more mature specimens that it's not advisable to eat the skin on them due to the risk of the tougher fiber slicing or tearing nicks on the inside of the colon.
So in summary, the white membrane on the outside is natural, edible and safe, but maybe not a good idea to eat the outer layers of tougher skin on mature specimens of Kabocha squashes.
The outside looks like wax or similar and is used to keep them longer without shrinking since no one eats the skin. Helps retain moisture inside. I put a coating on mine to overwinter them in the garage, also keeps out insects from spoiling them.
I also previously bought such pumpkins, I was assured that they were natural.
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