An Autumn Tradition
October 12, 2011 (Wednesday)
On our trip to New England, Wanda and I saw many homes surrounded by displays of pumpkins; it was early October, 1997. I saw such a display in Rockport a few days ago. When we see these kinds of things, we know that Halloween is near and Thanksgiving can’t be far behind.
Pumpkins are decorative, but they are also good food, cooked in various ways and usually enjoyed by almost everyone.
A favorite activity is carving the pumpkin so that it becomes a Jack-O-Lantern. That custom came from Ireland. The name comes from an Irish myth about a man named Stingy Jack. Large turnips and potatoes served the purpose there, but when the Irish came to America, they used the pumpkin instead. Pumpkins have been grown in North America for 5000 years.
In 1584, a French explorer found what he called, “gros melons,” in French, in the St. Lawrence region of North America. When his description was translated into English, it was “pompion,” and that word has morphed into “pumpkin.”
Pumpkins are low in calories, fat, and sodium and high in fiber. They are good sources of Vitamin A, Vitamin B, potassium, protein, and iron.
If you want to grow your own, plant seeds between the last week of May and the middle of June. They take between 90 and 120 days to grow and are picked in October when they are bright orange in color. Their seeds can be saved to grow new pumpkins the next year.
A lady at church took pity on me last Sunday and gave me some food to take home. Among the goodies was a pumpkin roll. My oh my. Good food. It reminds me of the ice cream rolls we used to make at the creamery where I worked when I was a student in Fort Worth. Just a different color. And a different taste. And it doesn’t exactly melt. It only looks something like it. And boy, is it ever good. Thank you, Ruth Ann.
Nine cooks from New Bremen, Ohio baked a 20-foot diameter pumpkin pie in 2010. It weighed 3,699 pounds and set a new world’s record for the largest pumpkin pie ever baked.
I’ll be sniffing the air this fall, hoping to get a whiff of some great cook’s work in a kitchen, creating that first Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. It won’t set a record, but I guarantee you it will be eaten. And enjoyed.