BS: Pumpkin Power

Subject: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Old Guy
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 10:58 PM

Are you feeling it yet?

Every year around this time my wife and I start feeling the pumpkin power.

It started way back one fall when my wife was feeling down, worn out an overwhelmed. She is a teacher and sometimes she gets bogged down with lesson plans and grading papers this time of year.

She told me she needed a boost. I have just bought some tiny pumpkins. I told her to hold it tight in her hand, carry it to school and the power of the pumpkin would travel right up her arm and give her a charge.

Believe it or not it worked. It cheered her up and got her going again.

Now we are both believers of pumpkin power. Every year we get some tiny pumpkins and carry them around in our pockets to benefit from their power.

Do you believe? Try it and you might become a believer.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: bobad
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 11:14 PM

No room in the pockets - they're already bursting with crucifixes, rabbits feet, pyramids, crystals, god's eyes, hamsas, horseshoes,four leaf clovers, etc. - I need all the help I can get.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Sooz
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 02:44 AM

We harvested a 12lb pumpkin from the garden last weekend. By the time I'd cut it all up and cooked it I was knackered, not revitalised. Perhaps I should have carried it around with me instead!

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: The PA
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 06:41 AM

In our village in worcestershire we have a 'pumpkin lighting up' evening at the end of October. The whole village carve pumpkins during the week before and then display them lit up in their front gardens. At the village hall they serve soup, roast pumpkin, pumpkin pie etc. The village is absolutely packed to heaving with visitors, its a fantastic sight. Last year the local BBC station broadcast their evening news programme from the village hall. We even have a prize for the best display.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Mo the caller
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 07:07 AM

Tiny pumpkins? Are there such things?
Here in the UK in Autumn I can't resist picking up conkers to put in my pocket. So glossy and tactile (I didn't know I knew that word). I didn't even play conkers when I was at school, so I never had any reason to pick them up, I just like them.
Do you do that in the US? Mutilate the seed of the Horse Chestnut tree by drilling a hole and threading string through it then using it to try to break your opponents conker.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 08:31 AM

This explains alot, Oldster...****grin****

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 01:25 PM

MO The Caller - I am unaware of conkers in the USA but we do have an urban game called Johnny On The Pony which accomplishes the same basic thing - concussions (as well as bruised ribs and the occasional shattered knee cap)

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Wesley S
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 01:34 PM

Is that a pumpkin in your pocket or are to just happy to see me?

Seriously - what does your wife teach? Grades - subject. Teaching is one of the toughest jobs there is - and so undervalued.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Old Guy
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 12:18 AM

She teaches 12th grade English, AP, yearbook and is the chair.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Old Guy
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 12:34 AM

The tiny pumpkins are actually gourds that look exactly like pumpkins but they still have the power. Pumpkins are actually a kind of squash, an orange winter squash, and a member of the gourd family.

I "butcher" our pumpkins by cutting them into wedges like an orange. Then I cut the slimy part out with a grape fruit knife. Then I peel the skin off with a potato peeler.

I boil them like potatoes with a little salt, drain and mash them with a potato masher and Voila, ready for the spices, eggs, milk and sugar for pie filling.

The stuff you buy in cans looks like baby poop to me. Fresh pumpkin tastes much better than canned pumpkin.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: LilyFestre
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 12:48 AM

Pumpkins are also packed with nutrients....great food for your body!!

I teach and while I don't carry pumpkins in my pockets, I do have a Jack Be Little Pumpkin on my desk! It's been there since the beginning of the month radiating all it's autumn happiness! :)

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: JennyO
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 01:53 AM

I must have a lot of pumpkin power in my bedroom! My light fitting is a large round orange silk lantern - one of these, which I've always thought looks like a giant pumpkin and casts a pleasant orange glow over everything.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Old Guy
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 12:52 PM

Yep, that looks like a pumpkin to me. My granddaughter used to call them pumpmins. My grandson used to call them punkums.

My wife made a pumpkin halloween costume for him when he was a year old. She dressed him in it and took him to a pumpkin farm to sit him next to some real pumkins for a photo. I told her to be careful because he looked so much like a pumpkin, she might loose him amongst all the other pumpkins.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: CapriUni
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 09:18 PM

And at the other end of the spectrum...

This last Wednesday (Sept. 5), I watched a documentary on people who grow giant pumpkins. Even as I was getting emotionally involved with the different growers (the documentaries in this series are predictably manipulative), I couldn't help thinking: "What a waste! All that land, all that water, time and effort for a single fruit." And it was, as far as I could tell, just for show and bragging rights. I mean, no one even mentioned making pies from them.

Then, the next day, I thought of the rhyme:

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater
Had a wife and couldn't keep her,
he put her in a pumpkin shell --

Dried guords make great bird houses... if the same could be done with the shell of one of these pumpkins, you'd have a two-adult sleeper, easy...

Still, too much of a waste of energy and resourses, if you ask me...

So, how much pie can you make from a half-ton pumpkin? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Bee
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 09:39 PM

This is what you do with those giant pumpkins, Capri-Uni!

Windsor, Nova Scotia is the home of giant pumpkin pioneer Howard Dill, and every year some of those pumpkins become boats, attracting much needed tourist buiness to the area. Trust me, land and water in NS are not in short supply, yet, and it's a better use than selling the no-profit farm to a rich foriegner who'll do Godknowswhat to it - and we have some spectacular cases of godknowswhat.

http://www.worldsbiggestpumpkins.com/Regatta%20Images.htm

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: bobad
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 09:42 PM

You can also try your hand at Punkin' Chunkin'

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 10:24 PM

Ah puts mah punkin's in mah oatmeal, or grits.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: open mike
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 11:56 PM

some find them excellent food for pets..dogs --ask sorcha.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: GUEST,kt not logged in
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 02:25 AM

hmm.....I just made the first of the season's pumpkin bread... And then tonight, a close relative.....squash soup.mmmmmm. I just love the scents that come out of the kitchen in the fall. Will have to try pumpkin power!
KT

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: JennieG
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 02:31 AM

JennieG's pumpkin soup - after eating this I guarantee you won't try the bland sort again.

Brown one large or two small roughly chopped onions in a little oil. Stir in a rounded teaspoon or so of green Thai curry paste and mush it all around for a minute until your sinuses start to run. Add peeled chopped raw pumpkin and stir for a minute or 2, then add a few cups of chicken or vegetable stock, cover and simmer until the pumpkin is cooked. Remove the vegetables and stock and blend or process until smooth, then return to the pan and stir in about a cup of coconut milk. Heat until warm, don't boil or you will curdle the coconut milk. Serve topped with a sprinkling of chopped coriander leaves and accompanied by a nice fresh warm bread roll and butter.

Not bad, if I do say so meself.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: PMB
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 05:45 AM

I can't believe this thread. Don't you know that pumpkins are addictive?

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: John Hardly
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 05:51 AM

pumpkins

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: sian, west wales
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 07:52 AM

I didn't think any of my pumpkin plants had survived the slugs this wet summer (down t' the allotment) but I had a happy surprise on Friday. One plant had weasled itself into the black current bush patch and, tucked away in there I found just one pumpkin, but a lovely specimen. It's blue. (That's OK; I planted blue to see what they're like.)

Now - pie, or jack o' lantern????? Hmmmmmm. Generally I'm glad that Canadian thanksgiving is in early October but it does pose a dilema in the Great Pumpkin Debate.

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 12:36 PM

You want pumpkins? You'll find plenty here!

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: frogprince
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 01:55 PM

Very few people seem to grasp the actual significance of "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater". When that was written, there were no pumpkins remotely approaching the size of today's giant specimans. Peter had to dismember her completely, and probably chop all the long bones in half, to begin to get her into that pumpkin shell.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: CapriUni
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 05:05 PM

frogprince --

Yeah, I've heard the "that rhyme is really about a murder," but I've also seen arguments against the murder theory.


Personally, I think it's another example of nursery rhyme nonsense. You know, in the same camp with flying cows, and blackbirds that eat washerwomen's noses....

As for the culinary pleasures of pumpkins, I'd love to try them the way they were traditionally eaten by the Lenape, when they lived in the Mid-Hudson Valley:

They'd slice the pumpkins thinly, cross-wise, into rings, and dry them for storage over the winter. When the time came to cook them, they'd be fried in bear fat (Crisco can be used as a modern substitute), with maple sugar for flavoring...

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: maeve
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 05:14 PM

Maple syrup, yummm! ;)

Here's a poem from a favorite poet. Best read aloud, of course.

James Whitcomb Riley. 1853–1916

"When the Frost is on the Punkin"

WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best,          5
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here—   10
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock—   15
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;   20
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps   25
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!...
I don't know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me—   30
I'd want to 'commodate 'em—all the whole-indurin' flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.


maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 05:21 PM

Now here's Pumkin Power at its highest.

Maybe this how Peter, the Pumkin Eater made it work.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Morticia
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 05:22 PM

I believe in the Great Pumpkin, I do.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: frogprince
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 08:16 PM

When the weather's hot and sticky,
That's no time for dunkin' dicky;
When the frost is on the pumpkin,
That's the time for dicky dunkin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: CapriUni
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 08:51 PM

maeve --

While a similar recipe would probably work with syrup, the Lenape boiled the maple sap down much further, until it was solid sugar (It was the Europeans who got into the habit of stopping at the syrup phase). The Lenape would mold the sugar into about 1" cubes, wrap them in birch bark, and use them as a form of currency (besides storing it in birch bark baskests, in their pantries). That doesn't work so well with syrup -- it would get messy.

And thank you for posting that poem. I knew the line "When the frost is on the punkin," but I don't think I ever learned the whole thing.

Bill D --

Indeed. There's nothing in the rhym that specifically says he put her whole body in...

Morticia --

All the truly sane people do.

Frogprince --

heh.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: maeve
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 10:21 PM

Well yes, you did say maple sugar. I just got myself all worked up at the thought of all that mapley sweetness and mistyped! I'm glad you enjoyed the poem. I grew up with James Whitcomb Riley's poetry, and love to dip back in from time to time.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: CapriUni
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 02:27 AM

Well (gives a wary, sidelong, glance to frogprince) he's a good poet to keep for dipping.

The poem also reminded me of my father; he never did recite the poem himself, but he told me, on more than one occasion, that October was his favorite month...

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: PMB
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 05:18 AM

The Emperor Claudius underwent apocolocyntosis or Pumpkinification after his death. The word is funnier than the satire by Seneca. I suppose the title of this thread could be Colocyntergy.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 08:23 AM

Pumpkin is the best anti-stress drug available, nothing by prescription can do better.

Be the pumpkin.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: astro
Date: 11 Sep 07 - 09:39 PM

I don't know, but this time of the year gets me thinking about Christmas...a month off from teaching, singing, presents and even better, buying presents, food, trees and decorations, cool weather, friends, sleep ins, kids running around excited, and snow sometimes....

Can't wait! Where are my carol CD's!!! Let's get'em going....!

astro

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Desdemona
Date: 12 Sep 07 - 11:32 AM

Oh, no, too soon for Christmas, EEK.

But Pumpkin Power! That's just what my whole household needs as we get back into the 'scholastic swing' of a new semester...I'll stop by the local farmstand this aftenoon...I can feel it already (and the bigger ones make a mean curried pumpkin & apple soup, as well)!

~D

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Mooh
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 05:58 AM

Bass player friend woke the other morning to find a pumpkin in the back seat of his new car, and rear window glass everywhere. Pumpkin bomb.

Had the first of two Thanksgiving dinners yesterday (the second one is today). The homemade pumpkin pie was fantastic and I planned for two pieces by having less turkey and dressing/stuffing.

Be the pumpkin. I am the pumpkin.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Sooz
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 10:18 AM

The pumpkins are not ripening here in Lincolnshire.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: number 6
Date: 08 Oct 07 - 10:32 AM

We went out last week and did our annual pumpkin shopping.

Mooh .... that must have been one hell of a hard pumpkin.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: gnu
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 05:23 AM

A lot of small ones this year, eh, sIx? Cold, wet July and hot and dry since around here. Was that big pumpkin in Nova Scotia in your paper yesterday? 545kg.

As for PPie from scratch, I got mine for $5 at a Real Atlantic Superstore... it was excellent. Wish I had a nickel for eveyone they sold. Every time I was there, they were putting them out by the pallet. Nearly everyone I saw in the store had two or more of them in their cart.

Then even had mincemeat pies. Not trad for Thanksgiving, but, at $5, I got two of them as well... darn tasty!

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: KT
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 08:35 AM

Pumpkins are 47 cents a pound here!

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Mooh
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 12:45 PM

number 6...No kidding! Round Hallowe'en we get lots of pumpkin smashing, it's a favourite of local vandals.

Had the second round of pumpkin pie yesterday and it was a good as the first. There are leftovers for me too.

Be one with the pumpkin.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 02:07 PM

The problem with store-bought pumpkin pie is that it's to darned bland. Take any pumkin pie recipe in any cookbook (or the back of the can) and at least double the amount of clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. and your starting to get there. You should really be able to see a noticable darkening of the pumpkin mix as you stir the spices in. If you are making pie from whole pumpkins use smallish ones (about 8 in. diameter) and steam the meat instead of boiling it.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: gnu
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 02:14 PM

Waste $5 and buy one of these... not bland.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: gnu
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 02:21 PM

Just saw this.... Thad Starr from Pleasant Hill, Ore. celebrates after winning the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival Weigh-off with a contest record of 1,524 pounds in Half Moon Bay, Calif., Monday, Oct. 8, 2007. Starr wins six dollars for each pound, which equals $9,144.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 09 Oct 07 - 08:12 PM

Someone need to find that post about the gal-pal of a 'catter who tried roasting the pumpkin whole and it blew up on and all over her and her family. It's funny and utterly horrifying all at once. I remember reading the post a couple of years ago and telling the story at a dinner party as "the true and terrible story fo the great pumpkin massacree" ala Alice's restaurant. Nobody believed it really happened.

I do hope that gal and her baby who got sploshed by the evil hot pumpkin guts were eventually totally fine. Does anyone know? I worry about that every time I cut open a fresh pumpkin to saute.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: Mooh
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 08:42 AM

Tonight the Great Pumpkin rises from the pumpkin patch...Jack is on guard in the front window, but the chief cook has her eyes on him.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Pumpkin Power
From: frogprince
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 11:03 PM

Too much Halloween candy?