Season of the Pumpkin

Pumpkins aren't just for Halloween although that's one of their more enjoyable uses. Well, pumpkin pies are tasty, too. One year I actually went to the trouble of saving the carved out pumpkin and making pies with it. Another year I tried to make my own roasted pumpkin seeds. It was an interesting experiment but I highly recommend you buy them instead. Another year I got the little pie pumpkins. It's all the same. Pumpkin is pumpkin and it's all good.

Recycling is important with left over pumpkins. Don't let them sit on your front porch collapsing into gooey masses and attracting flies. Colorado and Ireland are particularly interested in seeing you properly recycle them. Just be sure you remove the seeds before you throw them on the compost heap or you'll have a boat load of vines next summer. The vines are quite attractive, especially as they cover up the rotting compost. However, you'll find yourself opening a pumpkin stand if you're not careful!

Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie. I love it. I could eat it all year round. On my journeys around the world I discovered that there's nothing as American as pumpkin pie, even though here in the US of A the saying is "apple pie." Apple pie is actually not an American preserve. It's a self deception we live with every day. In Lebanon they make some tasty pumpkin items (for St. Barbara's Day if I remember correctly) but only in American do we make the pies. Or maybe it should be "There's nothing as American as sweet potato pie." But that's another story.