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When I was a kid, my parents used to take me and my sister to the local pumpkin patch to find our very own pumpkins. We’d walk down the rows of vines, turning promising pumpkins around to see if they were just right on all sides. This was the first of the end-of-year traditions, the signal that celebrations aplenty were on their way.

I can still remember the feel of the pumpkin stem’s prickles in my fingers as we cut it from the vine. Then hefting our find back to the car and home to gut them and carve them into creepy creations.

Nowadays, I don’t think kids get that opportunity as often. Yes, there are still pumpkin patches, but they’re more remote and available to people who either live in a rural or semi-rural area or those who don’t mind driving a bit to get their pumpkins.
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Guest Writer: Melania Karel

Halloween is nearly here once more, and if you’re like many people, you’ll be making a Halloween pumpkin lantern. Carved vegetable lanterns, or Jack O’Lanterns as they’re often known, are part of an ancient tradition that originated with the Celts. However the original lanterns made by the Celts in Europe were usually made from turnips, swedes or mangelwurzels. Halloween lanterns made from pumpkins only became popular relatively recently, after the Halloween holiday started to be widely celebrated in the US, where pumpkins are plentiful. They have since gained popularity elsewhere in the world too, thanks to the relative ease with which they can be carved, and the brilliant orange glow they produce when lit up.

Pumpkins are very versatile and can be carved and decorated carved in any number of ways and it’s very easy to produce a lantern that will make a beautiful addition to your Halloween decorations. Read more »

By now, you have probably figured out that I love pumpkins. But did you also know that I love trains? Well, that’s why when I heard about the Pumpkinliner, I just had to share it with you.

Starting Oct. 6,  Fillmore & Western Railway Co. in Santa Clara, Calif., will be running trains to the “Icabog” pumpkin farm, where pumpkins go for $1 and up. The private pumpkin patch also has a carousel, a haunted hay maze and an arts & crafts fair. Sounds like a great family fun day to me.

For more information, visit their website at www.fwry.com.

Yesterday, we were driving by our local Food 4 Less and as I looked in through the store’s open windows, I saw a big box of pumpkins.

Wow. It’s only half-way through September and its already time to think about your October Jack-o-Lantern.

But, as I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, the pumpkin crop isn’t going to be as big as it was in the past. In fact, many pumpkin farmers are advising you to expect quality over quantity.

Also, keep in mind that the purpose of your pumpkin dictates which kind of pumpkin you should choose. “For carving jack-o-lanterns, select Happy Jack, Halloween or Spookie varieties, which are larger than 12 inches and weigh 20 to 40 pounds,” Dr. Dymple Cooksey, nutrition specialist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, told Texas A&M Agriculture News. “These are too coarse, stringy and dry for eating.”

If you want to cook with your pumpkin, you want to choose the smaller, sweeter varieties such as Small Sugar or Triple Treat, which are 8-10 inches in diameter, weight around 6-8 pounds, are more rounded than your typical Jack-O-Lantern varieties.

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.

One of my favorite things about jack-o-lantern carving is pulling out the pumpkin’s pulp. I love the way the seeds squish and squirm about in my hands. I get to experience this same pleasure when preparing pumpkins, squash and gourds for something I’m cooking. However, this festive pulp can do a real number on your plumbing if you don’t dispose of it properly (when you’re done playing with it, of course).

“The slimy pulp coats the inside walls of your pipes and garbage disposal,” says Paul Abrams, spokesman for Roto-Rooter, “then it hardens and chokes your drains.”

Roto-Rooter recommends carving pumpkins far away from the kitchen sink. Do this fun family task on a thick bed of old newspapers. Then, when your masterpiece is complete, you can just roll all the newspapers up, along with all the left over pumpkin parts and through it away in the trash. Never put the sticky, stringy pumpkin pulp down the drain, even if you have a garbage disposal.