It’s Hallowe’en. I live on Saanich Peninsula, where the farms grow many pumpkins. Today I set out to buy a pumpkin to carve and as a by-product, eat:)
It was crazy. Everywhere I went, they were sold out of pumpkins. I was beginning to despair when I asked the produce manager at the Co-op if he had any pumpkins. He said he was sold out, but that he had obtained a large pile yesterday from Mars Farms, just down the road. I tootled off, and picked up this fine specimen.
Next step is to slaughter the pumpkin, so I cut out the top (at an angle so the lid could be replaced without falling in), and scooped out the pumpkin guts and seeds. The seeds I washed and drizzled with olive oil and a couple teaspoons of curry powder and garam masala and baked at 400F for about 25 minutes.
The stringy threads I tossed in the garbage. Then I scraped the inside of the shell, and removed a lot of the pulp, which I put in a pot with a small amount of water and cooked at low heat until it was mashable. Then I strained the water out of it, and put it in freezer bags, 2 cups to a bag for use in pies, cookies, soups and whatever else strikes my fancy.
Foodie part done, I had a lovely shell to carve. Usually I plan ahead for this part, but today I had no idea what I wanted. I eventually decided on a skull, book and candle. I don’t have any fancy tools, so this necessitated a lot of scraping and cutting with a paring knife.
I love to carve pumpkins at Hallowe’en, but I also enjoy the by-products in the form of the seeds and pulp.
Some of my other pumpkins:
Do you carve a pumpkin at Hallowe’en?