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While surfin’ the web for info on pumpkins, I found this website: pumpkin-guy.com. You should check out its gallery, which features some really creative painted pumpkins. Note, however, that this website is in Flash, so it may be slow if you don’t have high-speed Internet.

What’s nice about painting, rather than carving, your Halloween pumpkin, besides the reduction in rotted pumpkins, is that you can have your pumpkin and eat it, too!

I’ll share my painted pumpkin, and a couple of the recipes I made with it after Halloween, in a future post.

You probably know that pumpkins are good for you because they are a good source of vitamin A and fiber. But did you know that they can be good for the environment, too?

New research, to be published later this year in Environmental Science and Technology, shows that pumpkins can clean up soil contamination with DDT and other pollutants.

Pollutants that don’t dissolve in water, such as DDT, PCBs and dioxins, are difficult to remove and the difficulty increases with time. Usually, to clean up contaminated areas, the soil is removed and either dumped in a landfill or incinerated.

Pumpkins offer an alternative through phyto-remediation – the use of plants to clean up contaminated soil. Basically, pumpkins could be planted in contaminated soil and destroyed after they’ve been harvested.

“Our research has shown that members of the Curcubita pepo species, including pumpkins, are particularly effective in this regard,” says Ken Reimer, PhD, a chemist at the Royal Military College of Canada and corresponding author of the paper.

The research compared rye grass, tall fescue, alfalfa, zucchini and pumpkin. Pumpkins took up the most DDET with zucchini, another C. pepo species, following at second. The researchers believe this to be the case because of the large mass and volume found in the species.

Vitamin A, an essential nutrient for eye health, can be found in two forms: retinol and beta carotene.

Retinol, which is found in liver, egg yolks and full cream dairy products, can be toxic if consumed in large amounts.

Beta carotene is a safer from of dietary vitamin A and can be found in red and yellow fruits and veggies, such as pumpkin.

A typical serving of pumpkin, 1 cup cooked, contains 2,651 IU vitamin A in beta carotene. For normal healthy adults the US RDA of vitamin A is 5,000 IU. Therefore one serving of pumpkins provides for more than half your daily allowance of vitamin A.

Earlier, I mentioned cross-pollination of pumpkins and winter squash. One thing I did not mention is that not all curcubits can cross-pollinate. In order for one curcubit, which includes squash, cucumbers and melons, as well as pumpkins, to pollinate another, they must be of the same species.

Pumpkins are of the Curcubita pepo, which also includes zucchini, cocozelle, acorn squash, crookneck squash and others. You can tell a C. pepo by its unique characteristics, which include:

• Uniformly colored tan seeds
• Lobed leaves with prickly hairs on the surface of the stems and leaves,
• Hard, roughly angled flower stocks (peduncles), and
• Male flowers with short, thick and conical stamens (androecia).

Pumpkins, as well as other plants such as tomatoes, peppers and corn, will not produce pollen if it is too hot. When temperatures rise into the upper 80s, poor pumpkin pollination is often the result. If the temperatures rise into the 90s, you might as well forget about pollination all together. Poor pollination results in low fruit yield, so the less pollination you get, the less pumpkins you’ll have come autumn.

So, as the climate changes, getting warmer earlier in the year, it is quite possible that your local pumpkin patch will have smaller yields and those farms in the warmest areas may need to switch to other crops.

Just some food for thought.

Tim Carrigan wrote yesterday, in the South Bend Tribune, words that warmed the cockles of my heart (whatever they are), and I thought I’d share them with you.

“The nice thing about having fresh pumpkins is you know it won’t be long before it will be ready to be a pie, or some roasted pumpkin seeds. Pumpkins are versatile; besides the obvious pies and dessert items they can make, you also can make some fantastic soups and bisques.”

Of course, I’d add to that some wonderful breads, muffins, cookies, curries, etc. All that will be showcased in the cookbook I’m working on, A Passion for Pumpkins.

Then, he went on to say, “So next time you see a pumpkin, think beyond what you can carve with it, and make something your family can eat.”

Mmmm. Like I said, a man after my own heart.

For the full article, go to www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060911/Lives07/609110430/-1/LIVES/CAT=Lives07.

On Oct. 29, the Bristol Public Library in Bristol, Conn., will host the first ever Pumpkin Festival, show casing grinning, menacing and other creatively carved pumpkins.

“The Pumpkin Festival is something we hope will become an annual event,” Jessica Dumont, library board member, told park officials earlier this month.

Pumpkins decorated and carved by locals will be judged and prizes will be won. “It’s going to be something different,” said Francine Petosa, Library Director. The event should fit in with other community events planned for the Fall, including the Mum Festival, Arts in the Park and the Downtown Auto Show. “We’re going to have a lot of fun.”

For more information, visit www.bristolpumpkinfestival.com/home.

In 2003, the city of Keene, N.H., made the Guinness Book of World Records for the most carved and lit jack-o-lanterns gathered in one place – 28,592.

This year, they have a challenger – Bennington, Vt.

Dressed from head to toe in orange, Bob Stannard tossed an orange gauntlet down of the floor of Keene City Hall on Aug. 2, 2006.

Sporting an orange baseball cap with “Pumpkin King” emblazoned across it, Michael E.J. Blastos, mayor of Keene, told Stannard that, “It takes a great deal of courage to wear a suit like that.”

Then the mayor provided Stannard, executive director of Better Bennington Corp., with a CD from the 2003 pumpkin festival on how to “challenge Keene, what can be learned from Keene, and how to loose gracefully to Keene.”

The pseudo event was staged in an effort to publicize both town’s downtown areas.

“Now all we need is 30,000 pumpkins and about 1,000 volunteers,” said Stannard. “This is going to be fun.”

For more information:

Vt.-N.H. pumpkin challenge made official
www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060803/NEWS/608030358/1003/NEWS02

Keene Pumpkin Festival
www.pumpkinfestival.com

1st Annual Bennington Great Pumpkin Challenge
www.bennington.com/bbc