Carma's Cookery

If you’ve decided to forgo the canned pumpkin this year and give fresh pumpkin a try, here are some tips for choosing one that won’t let you down.

First, you want to make sure that you’re not buying a Halloween pumpkin. You want the smaller, darker orange sugar pumpkin for cooking.

Then you want to check the rind and make sure it is firm. If the rind is soft, this is a sign of either immaturity or improper storage.

Also look at the color quality of the skin. If it is shiny, the pumpkin may be underripe or waxed (which could mask bad quality).

To avoid mold or bacteria growth, look for a pumpkin with the remnant of a dried-out stem still attached. Give it a little push — if it moves, move on. If it holds firm, you should be O.K.

Once you get your selected pumpkin home, store in a cool spot with good air circulation — not the refrigerator. It should stay good for up to a month.

Of course, if you’re looking for other types of winter squash, these tips work just as well.

The other day, as my husband was listening to one of his podcasts, it occurred to me that the world is so amazingly connected. The podcast was talking about the issue of bee die offs happening throughout the U.S. They even interviewed a pumpkin farmer about how bees were affecting his crops.

Also, to help me develop content for this blog, I have a Google Alert set for the keyword “pumpkin” and so I get a lot of news about how weather — both lack of rain and too much rain — are adversely affecting the pumpkin crops around the country.

When you hear about global climate change, does it occur to you that this might affect what kind of pie you’ll be able to serve with Thanksgiving dinner? If you don’t like honey, a bee die off might not catch your attention. But this simple fact actually might raise the prices of the vegetables in your local grocery store because the crops are smaller.