Getting pumped up for the holidays

 Let’s Pump(kin) Up the Peace and Joy

Well while it may be hard to believe and a bit scary Halloween is almost upon us.  So the next two or three entries will be devoted To big orange round things not basketballs, a frightening amount of candy, and the money we spend on things that go bump in the night.  Let’s start with those orange things shall we?

We are talking about pumpkins of course and the modified version of the gourd  known as the Jack-o-Lantern.  

While we here in the U.S. don’t seem to pay much attention to the pumpkin most of the year the fall is certainly its season.  We generally assign a round shape to the pumpkin but like its fruity cousin (yes the pumpkin is a fruit)  the watermelon, a pumpkin will generally grow in the shape its surroundings allow.  So could we grow a square pumpkin?  We could but allowing the fruit to spread as it will seems to yield the incredibly varied shapes and sizes we see in the store and pumpkin patches that appear this time of year.  Pumpkins range from just a few ounces to the world record  smashers that weigh two and a quarter tons or so.  Yes if used for pie this gigantic thing could produce  enough pie to serve somewhere around 10,000 people.  And might provide a nice sized small home for the wife of Peter, Peter you know of pumpkin eater fame.  Not all pumpkins are orange as some take on a yellow and some take on a greenish hue.. but the majority  are orange and are remembered for Halloween which is the holiday we eat candy and Thanksgiving  which is the holiday we eat everything else, take a nap and then eat everything else again.  

There are different reports about how long we have been eating pumpkins or growing them intentionally, however recent research has uncovered pumpkin seeds that were obviously harvested and are linked to a Native American  tribe.  These seeds were dated to about 6,000 B.C.  just 3 years before the original batch of candy corn which you can still buy at the dollar store or some Walmart locations.   

Pumpkins as food and fun

There are thousands of places where you can catapult a pumpkin which is a blast.  However artists generally claim the most fun buy finding creative ways to carve faces and other shapes into the pumpkin and then provide light within to cast spooky or funny shadows.  You can look up the story of this Irish guy Jack who “tricked” the devil sort of but in order to keep the devil from getting revenge he had to have something  to look like a head.  Now because he was Irish and Ireland was full of potatoes the original Jack O’lantern  (you see that’s where the “O” came from  Jack was Irish where the names are O”Cool.  Anyway when the tradition came stateside there weren’t so many potato  stashes that weren’t dedicated to food and its not that easy to carve  a spud but a pumpkin is already head-shaped and the head (like a lot of politicians) is hollow.  Well except for  some fleshy parts that when combined with about a pound and an a half of sugar tastes pretty good when you put it in a pie and cover it with whipped cream.   Oh and there are seeds which you can boil in salt dry, cover in butter and then roast at about 325 degrees until golden brown… Oh and you can season the seeds with about any flavor you might like so you can have garlic seeds, ranch style seeds  and if you have sugar or cinnamon  left after the pie use that.  

The Peace and Joy of Pumpkins

Well first the selection  of a pumpkin and its carving usually involves kids getting to pick their own.. The more adventurous kids will reach inside the pumpkin as it is being processed  and the squash of the squash  is tactilely interesting.  The art produced from the carving is usually a joint kid/adult venture  and that is something lacking in a lot of our daily happenings.  The fact that a lot of the parts are usable and the fact. You could plant the seeds for next year teaches  sustainable concepts.  Oh and after a short while the pumpkin which has served us well biodegrades quite nicely.  In addition to this many community options for getting pumpkins are linked to patches that have pumpkins every year so nice traditions are possible.  

Well… there’s more Halloween fun coming and there’s a nice pumpkin waiting for the knife… more soon

Since Jack came from Ireland maybe we could end the first segment of this with a lovely little Limerick?

Pumpkins Everywhere

In each neighborhood thatd we strolled through

There were hundreds of pumpkins in view

And there were also long lines 

Of political signs 

Showing heads that are quite empty too