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The Great
PUMPKIN
U M P K I N S H AV E
the power to transport us back to our childhood. Every year when we carve that wide smile on the
jack-o-lantern’s face and set it out on the front stoop, we reconnect with the child we once were.
They are a part of the stories we tell ourselves. There is, of course, the fairytale of Cinderella’s
fairy godmother turning a pumpkin into a carriage. More
opening scene of “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”,
contemporary, who can forget the Peanuts’ Linus Van Pelt,
after he and his sister Lucy have brought one home, and
sitting in his lonely pumpkin patch on Halloween night,
Lucy stabs her knife to carve a jack-o-lantern, Linus
waiting in vain for the Great Pumpkin to appear and give
screams, “Ooooh! You didn’t tell me you were going to kill it!”
gifts to the good little children?
So attached to pumpkins is poor Linus, that in the
Pumpkin season each fall is synonymous with the first
day of school, the beginning of a new football season, raking
P
U
M
P
K
I
N
S
World Record
GIANT PUMPKINS
n
For most of us, fall means a bounty of
pumpkins for pies and jack-o-lanterns, along
with a gathering of the rest of the autumn
harvest. But for thousands of backyard gardeners, fall is the time of reckoning and—for a
lucky few—glory. These are the growers of the
heavyweights, the Giant Pumpkins. For them,
pumpkin growing is a competitive sport.
leaves, and the first crisp wind
arriving in the New World, and
of the year. Though Americans
seeing pumpkins grown by the
spend
Indians for the first time. Soon it
over
$1
billion
As recently as 16 years ago, the heaviest
Halloween costumes,
pumpkin officially weighed a mere 403
and another $958 mil-
pounds. Since then, the world record has
lion
on
Halloween
on
became a staple in
Pumpkins were
their diets—and, of
course, the pumpkin
been broken nine times. Last year, a new
candy, the undisputed
once
world record for the largest pumpkin was
star of Halloween has
recommended
served at the first
set by a woman named Gerry Checkon of
always
the
for removing
Thanksgiving.
orange
freckles and
Spangler, Pennsylvania. Checkon’s pumpkin
weighed in at 1,131 pounds, 39 pounds more
bright,
been
big
pumpkin.
than the previous year’s world record.
And
was
curing
as
for
snake bites.
most
likely
The name was
first coined by French
explorer
Jacques
To truly appreciate the feat of growing these
Thanksgiving…
Cartier who, in 1584,
behemoths, consider that a 1,000-pound
“What calls back the
reported from the St.
pumpkin’s girth is more than 14 feet
past like the rich pum-
Lawrence region that
around. When carved, it will hold a candle
pkin pie?” wrote the
he had found “gros
for light, as well as two or three members of
19
century poet Jon
melons”, which was
the family. Or you can bake some 900 pump-
Greenleaf
kin pies from a single fruit. It takes the
What
strength of 12 adults to move a 900-pound
table would be com-
pions,” and later pro-
pumpkin to the scale.
plete without one?
nounced “pumpkin”.
th
translated
Thanksgiving
English
into
as
“pon-
The pumpkin is believed to
Pumpkins are not vegeta-
North
bles, they’re fruits. Along with
America. Seeds from related
gourds and other varieties of
plants found in Mexico date back
squash, they are members of the
to 7000 to 5500 BC. Native
family Cucurbitacae, which also
Americans used pumpkin as a
includes cucumbers, gherkins,
staple in their diets centuries
and melons. Low in calories, fat,
before the pilgrims landed. We
and sodium and high in fiber,
all know the story of the settlers
pumpkins are loaded with vita-
have
Source:
Pumpkinnook.com
Whittier.
Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater
originated
in
Had a wife, but couldn’t keep her.
mins A and B and potassium. The
seeds are very high in protein and
are an excellent source of B vitamins and iron.
Pumpkins grow in many
states, but the self-proclaimed
“Pumpkin Capital of the World”
is Morton, Illinois where Libby
has its pumpkin processing
plant. From mid-August until
the time the harvest ends in
October, the plant will harvest
2.4 million cases of pumpkin
within a 45 mile radius.
We all know that as soon as
September rolls around, we’ll go
to a local farm market—or to
pick our own pumpkin at a
pumpkin patch. Be sure to bring
home two. Carve one. And save
the other for a pie.
Selecting a Pumpkin
for Cooking
The most popular use of pumpkin
is for decoration as jack-o-lanterns.
But when selecting a pumpkin for
cooking, the best selection is a “pie
pumpkin” or “sweet pumpkin,”
such as the Small Sugar, New
England Pie, or Winter Luxury
varieties. These are smaller than
the large jack-o-lantern pumpkins,
and the flesh is sweeter and less
watery. Here are a few more tips:
• Look for a pumpkin with 1 to 2
inches of stem left. If the stem is
cut down too low the pumpkin
will decay quickly or may be
decaying at the time of purchase.
• Avoid pumpkins with blemishes
and soft spots. A pumpkin should
be heavy.
• A lopsided pumpkin is not
necessarily a bad pumpkin. Shape
is unimportant.
• Figure one pound of raw,
untrimmed pumpkin for each cup
of finished pumpkin puree.
Source: University of Illinois Extension
T H E H I S TO RY O F
Jack O’Lantern
T
he Irish brought the tradition of the
jack-o-lantern to America. But the original jack-olantern was not a pumpkin. The jack-o-lantern legend
goes back hundreds of years. As the story goes, Stingy
Jack was a miserable, old drunk who liked to play
tricks on everyone: family, friends, his mother. One
day, Stingy Jack tricked the Devil into climbing up an
apple tree. Once the Devil climbed the apple tree,
Stingy Jack hurriedly placed crosses around the trunk,
and the Devil was trapped, unable to get down.
Before he let the Devil down, Stingy Jack made the
Devil promise not to take his soul when he died.
Many years later, when Jack finally died, he went to
heaven and was told that he was too mean and too
cruel, and had led a miserable, worthless life on
earth. Stingy Jack was not allowed to enter. So he
then went down to hell—where the Devil kept his
promise and would not allow him to enter hell
either. Now Jack had nowhere to go, and he was
forced to wander forever in the darkness between
heaven and hell.
Since there was no light, the Devil tossed Jack an
ember from the flames of hell, and Jack placed that
ember in a hollowed out turnip. From that day forward, Stingy Jack roamed the earth without a resting
place, lighting his way as he went with his “Jack
O’Lantern.”
On all Hallow’s eve, the Irish would hollow out
turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets. They
placed a light in them to ward off evil spirits and
keep Stingy Jack away. These were the original jacko-lanterns.
The Irish immigrants who came to America in the
1800’s quickly discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier
to carve out. So they
used pumpkins for
jack-o-lanterns, as
we still do today.
Source: Pumpkinnook.com
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.
P
U
M
P
K
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S
P U M P K I N
S O U P
T U R E E N
(OR PUMPKIN SOUP SERVED IN A PUMPKIN SHELL)
TRADITIONAL PUMPKIN PIE
This recipe is close to a classic pumpkin pie, but with less butter
and skim milk instead of cream. Make your own crust or buy a
frozen crust and allow it to thaw for a few minutes at room temperature.
One 9-inch unbaked pie shell
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups pumpkin puree or 1 can (16 oz) solid pack pumpkin
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
11⁄2 teaspoons grown cinnamon
1
⁄2 teaspoon salt
1
⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine
1 cup skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large bowl, add filling ingredients. Mix well with electric mixer or by hand. Pour into pie
shell. Bake 15 minutes. Then reduce oven temperature to
350°F and continue baking for an additional 45 minutes or
until knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool
slightly and serve warm or chilled. Makes one 9-inch pie.
Source: University of Illinois Extension
ROASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS
Don’t waste the seeds after cooking
your pie or making jack-o-lanterns.
1 quart water
2 Tablespoons salt
2 cups pumpkin seeds
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil or melted, unsalted butter
Preheat oven to 250°F. Pick through seeds and remove any
cut seeds. Remove as much of the stringy fibers as possible.
Bring the water and salt to a boil. Add the seeds and boil
for 10 minutes. Drain, spread on kitchen towel or paper
towel and pat dry. Place the seeds in a bowl and toss with
oil or melted butter. Spread evenly on a large cookie sheet
or roasting pan. Place pan in a preheated oven and roast
the seeds for 30 to 40 minutes. Stir about every 10 minutes,
until crisp and golden brown. Cool the seeds, then shell and
eat or pack in airtight containers or zip closure bags and
refrigerate until ready to eat.
A hollow pumpkin shell makes a picturesque and elegant soup tureen. A large pumpkin
shell can hold enough soup for a family gathering or dinner parties while small pumpkin shells
are just right for individual servings. Here’s how to prepare the pumpkin shell:
Select a squat pumpkin rather than one that is upright for balance. Field pumpkins used for
jack-o-lanterns do not work well. The Cinderella variety or Rouge Vif d’Etampes, as well as others, have the ideal bowl shape.
Start by washing the pumpkin in warm soapy water. Rinse well and dry. Using a sharp
knife, insert the tip about 1⁄3 of the way down, and cut away the top to form lid. Scoop out the
seeds (reserve for roasting) and stringy mass. Lightly oil the pumpkin inside and out and sprinkle the inside with salt. Place the pumpkin and lid on a parchment lined baking sheet or spray
with oil cooking spray.
This is the tricky part. Bake at 325°F for 1 to 11⁄2 hours depending on the size of the shell.
An over-baked shell will not support the weight of the soup so under-baking is preferred.
Bake the pumpkin shell until it begins to soften. Remove from the oven and cool. Gently
scoop out some of the soft pumpkin from the wall, being careful not to puncture the shell.
Scrape the cooked pumpkin from the lid as well. Use this cooked portion for the pumpkin
soup recipe that follows or freeze it for later use. Ladle hot soup into the pumpkin and serve. The
lid can be used as a cover or you can serve the soup uncovered.
QUICK AND EASY CREAMY PUMPKIN SOUP
2 cups finely chopped onions
2 green onions, sliced thinly, tops included
1
⁄2 cup finely chopped celery
1 green chili pepper, chopped
1
⁄2 cup canola or vegetable oil
3 cans chicken broth (141⁄2 oz cans) or 6 cups homemade chicken stock
2 cups pumpkin puree or 1 can (16 oz) solid pack pumpkin
1 bay leaf
11⁄2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 cup undiluted, evaporated skim milk
Salt and pepper to taste (Canned chicken broth and canned pumpkin
may contain added salt. Taste the finished soup before adding salt, as
additional salt may not be needed.)
Parmesan cheese
Fresh chopped parsley
In a 6-quart saucepan, sauté onions, green onions, celery
and chili pepper in oil. Cook until onions begin
to look translucent. Add broth, pumpkin,
bay leaf, and cumin. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for
20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove bay leaf. Add evaporated milk
and cook over low heat 5 minutes. Do
not boil. Taste and adjust seasoning, if
necessary. Add 1⁄2 teaspoon salt and 1⁄2
teaspoon black pepper, if desired.
Transfer hot soup to pumpkin tureen.
Garnish with grated Parmesan cheese
and chopped parsley. Serve hot.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Source: University of Illinois Extension
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