What To Do With All Those Pumpkins

In my father’s garden in Morriston, we once grew a giant variety of pumpkins, which produced fruit that large, they had to be harvested on a toboggan and of course, this is not unusual these days.

A member of the gourd family, like cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon and zucchini, the pumpkin is native to the Americas. The early varieties, grown by the First Nations peoples, alongside beans and sunflowers, had crooked necks and stored longer than those of the present day. A variety called Lakota, originally cultivated by the Sioux, has been recreated. First Nations people roasted strips over the fire, baked them and dried them, also eating the dried seeds and grinding them to make flour. The French adventurer, Jacques Cartier, explored the St. Lawrence region and reported finding “huge melons”.

It is thought that the Irish settlers transferred their practise of carving potatoes, mangles and turnips, based on the celebrating of a Celtic myth, to the pumpkin, beginning the Hallowe’en tradition of the Jack O’ Lantern. Today, it is also a symbol of the harvest in the form of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and Jack O’Lanterns are still around on Hallowe’en. Here are simple and delicious recipes:

PUMPKIN PIE

Ingredients:

• ½ cup sugar
• 2 rounded tablespoons of flour
• ½ teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1 large cup of cooked pumpkin mashed
• 1 cup milk
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 tablespoon molasses (optional)
• *Amount of spices can be adjusted to taste

Instructions:

1. Mix the spices with the sugar, flour and salt.
2. Add to the mashed pumpkin
3. Add the milk and beaten eggs and stir all together
4. Pour into pastry
5. Bake at 450 degrees F. for10 minutes
6. Reduce heat to 350 degrees for 40 minutes

PUMPKIN LOAF

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1¼ cups oil
• 20 oz. mashed pumpkin
• 3 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda (scant)
• ½ cup walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup raisins

Instructions:

1. Beat eggs and sugar together
2. Add oil & pumpkin
3. Mix flour, spices, baking [powder, baking soda & salt together
4. Add nuts & raisins last
5. Beat
6. Pour into loaf pans (2)
7. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.