Carma's Cookery

It’s almost that time of year, when communities start holding their harvest festivals, which so often feature pumpkins. Here are a few I’ve learned about.

What: MAiZE at Temple Hall Farm Regional Park
Where: 15789 Temple Hall Lane
When: Sept. 8 – Oct. 29
Highlights:

• 11-acre cornfield maze
• hay rides
• pick-your-own pumpkins

For More Info: www.nvrpa.org/templehall.html

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What: Circleville Pumpkin Show
Where: 159 East Franklin Street, Circleville, Ohio
When: Oct. 18 – 21
Highlights:

• Enormous pumpkins
• Really big pumpkin pie
• Contests: pumpkin toss, pie eating, etc.

For More Info: Pumpkinshow.com

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What: World Pumpkin Chucking Championships
Where: Long Neck, Delaware
When: Nov. 3-5
Highlights:

• Machines designed to chuck pumpkins long distances
• Pumpkin pie contest

For More Info: www.punkinchunkin.com

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What: Ukiah Country PumpkinFest
Where: Ukiah, Calif.
When: October
Highlights:

• Food
• Arts and crafts
• “Scarecrow City”
• Live music
• Pie eating contest
• Pumpkin weigh off

For More Info: www.cityofukiah.com/lifestyle/events.html

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What: Pumpkins in the Park
Where: Cumberland Bowl Park, Route 58, Jonesville, VA
When: Oct. 27
Highlights:

• Face painting
• Pumpkin painting
• Hay rides
• Trick-or-Treating

For More Info: www.virginia.org/site/description.asp?attrID=27932

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What: Pumpkin Festival
Where: Marker-Miller Orchards Farm Market
When: Oct. 28
Highlights:

• Wagon Rides
• Barrel Train Rides
• Pick-Your-Own Pumpkins

For More Info: www.markermillerorchards.com

“Pumpkin seeds can be started indoors in early May,” Erwin Goldstein wrote in his column for the Norwich Bulletin. “Or we can plant them outdoors in late May.”

In areas where the ground is still cold in late May, he recommends warming the soil first by placing black plastic over the bed for a few days.

And, if you live in an area where woodchucks also live – watch out for them! Woodchucks “enjoy pumpkins,” he says.

For more advice, visit www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060727/LIFESTYLE/607270307/1024.

In July, Half Moon Bay in California unanimously appointed an award-winning pumpkin farmer to City Council.

“Good leaders step up when they’re needed and I’ll find out if I have something to offer,” John Muller, owner of Farmer John’s Pumpkin Farm and Daylight Farms, told the San Mateo Daily Journal.

I just think that’s cool. For more information about Farmer John’s story, visit www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=61478.

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Photo: Farmer John Muller, from Half Moon Bay, Calif., holds his 127-pound square Atlantic Giant that won the Most Beautiful Pumpkin division in the annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay. (Source: photos.signonsandiego.com/gallery1.5/index.php.)

The Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival has launched a nation-wide art contest to find the perfect poster for the 2007 festival.

“The contest will open up a universe of creative possibilities,” said Cameron Palmer, chair of the Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee.

Not only that, but now the Coastal Arts League (CAL) can play a more integral role in the festival.

In the past, CAL hasn’t played much of a role in the event. “This is a marriage of two nonprofits,” said Shirley Kellicutt, CAL member and the person who came up with the idea for the poster. “We’re putting art into the Art & Pumpkin Festival.”

The winner of the contest will receive $1,000 and their work will be used for the 2007 festival and promotional material. A second place prize of $500, third place prize of $250 and fourth and fifth place prizes of $125 each, will also be awarded.

Kellicut advices that entries should have these four key characteristics:

• Be something that everyone can identify with,
• Have broad appeal,
• Capture the “orange orb essence” of the festival, and
• Be applicable to a variety of uses beyond a poster, such as T-shirts, wine glasses, etc.

In addition, she advise, “be prepared for lots of personal recognition,” if you win the contest.

For more information, including guidelines and rules, visit www.coastalartsleague.com/Pumpkin_Festival_Poster_Contest.htm

Half Moon Bay is beach town in Northern California known for its arts, surf and wildlife. It is about 25 miles south of San Francisco and 45 miles north of Santa Cruz, California.

Even though pumpkins are commonly associated with autumn, they are really warm-season plants. Pumpkin seeds cannot germinate in cold soil, and seedlings are easily injured by frost. So, the best time to plant your pumpkin, at least in the United States, is from late May to early July depending on your location. If you want to use them for Halloween, don’t plant them too early — otherwise the fruit may soften and rot before you are ready to use them.

Bees are necessary for pollinating pumpkins, so be careful with insecticides. If you use them, apply only in late afternoon or early evening when the blossoms have closed for the day and bees are no longer visiting the blossoms. Since new blossoms open each day and bees only alight upon open blossoms, they should be safe from contact with any potentially deadly sprays.

Don’t be worried if your plant’s first blossoms don’t develop into fruit. It is common in cucurbits (the family to which pumpkins belong) to have first blossoms that are male. These flowers attract the bees and help establish their route to the blooming vine. Then, once the female flowers bloom, the bees will already be regular visitors to the vine and will pollinate them.

For more information on growing your own pumpkins, check out:

www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/veggies/pumpkin1.html
www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s-2-28-274,00.html
www.sadako.com/pumpkin/growing.html
www.pumpkinnook.com/growing.htm

Or use “grow pumpkins” as key words in your favorite search engine.

If you love pumpkins, you might want to visit New Hampshire. On April 20, 2006, the state’s Senate approved HB 1111, which designated the pumpkin as the official New Hampshire state fruit. Governor John Lynch signed the bill into law during a ceremony held the first weekend of May.

Apparently, third and fourth graders at the Wells Memorial Elementary School in Harrisville created the bill, learning about civics in the process. The “class took on a bill head on and pushed it the entire way through,” said . Sen. Bob Flanders (R-Antrim), whose district includes Harrisville. “They ran into staunch opposition, those [who] favored the apple and blueberry, and they pressed on nevertheless.”

Now, just in case you are wondering, pumpkins are, biologically speaking, fruits. However, due to legal mumbo jumbo, they are classified as vegetables, just like tomatoes.