A Bit of a Squash

We talk pumpkins as Halloween quickly approaches

Pumpkin , Pear & Parmesan

Do you know the formula “ do n’t teach your grandmother to take up eggs ” ? Basically this mean do n’t secern people much more experienced and wiser than you how to do something that they already experience .

I fear that I may be about to make exactly that mistake by talking Cucurbita pepo to Americans .

Halloween is rapidly near – as I am trusted you have noticed . It is a much bigger affair over with you than it is here . Our Ithiel Town have only very recently been invaded by hordes of costume child seeking treats nor is there much in the way of ornamentation . It came as a bit of a surprise to me last yr ( at about this clock time ) when I was give a public lecture in Washington State and the hotel receipt area was festooned with fake cobwebs and witches ’ hats . This was nothing compared to the house of my delightful hostesses where virtually the whole living room was covered in a miniature Halloween village with little galvanizing ferris wheels and emerging ghouls .

Along with the gradual wakening of Halloween we have also belatedly discovered Pumpkins . When I was a child pumpkins were something very foreign and exotic . My only experience of them was from readingPeanutscartoons – where Linus used to spend farsighted nights in the pumpkin vine dapple waiting in vain for the Halloween coming into court ofThe Great Pumpkin : a sort of curcubit work Santa Claus . It never came .

I can not remember seeing a real Cucurbita pepo for the whole of my formative twelvemonth .

late , however , the carved Pumpkin lantern has become much more widespread . I have carved pumpkins for my children and very hard oeuvre it was too : the flesh is too hard for a spoon and not quite solid enough for a chisel or mogul tools . That said the result does in reality justify the working class and they do make a very satisfactory burn lantern although to use them for only that purpose seems a bit of a waste .

I much opt consume them : not as pumpkin pie ( and I may be just about to stomp on the toe of a great American tradition here , apologies in advance ) , which , in my limited experience , is a rather sweet and under the weather item the texture of nutty wallpaper library paste that is only just improve by the app of lots of emollient * – but as pumpkin curry , pumpkin soup or even just mashed pumpkin vine with bacon . There are many , many permutations .

We grow three kind : a big orange number called Vif d’Etampes which keep well into the winter but intend that once opened we are eat pumpkin for at least a week .

A small salmagundi called Uchiki Kuri that is smaller and quick to deplete a bit originally .

The best tasting is green and knobbly and , to be frank , not as attractive as the others . It is call Marina di Chioggia and was breed near Venice . It has thick-skulled tegument but taste delightful .

The secret to growing pumpkins is to start them in a deep hole with great deal of organic affair : it is good to grow them directly on a compost heap , for example . They also take lots of piddle . Ours also need protect from moorhens but I doubt whether that is a very far-flung problem .

So , this Halloween , retrieve a pumpkin is not just for chip at scary face with but actually tastes delicious . Learn how to ingurgitate a pumpkin here .

Boo !

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