The Great Pumpkin
The Great Pumpkin
Nothing brings forth fall like passing a field of cascading orange wanderers sculptured into all shapes and sizes. Hit the backcountry and you’ll pass wagons stacked high with the pumpkin bounty. Children angle each one hoping to find the perfect Jack-O-Lantern to sit on the family porch.
Pumpkins, and squash for that matter, are descendents of the Cucurbita genus and are exclusively American in origin. (Columbus introduced them into the Old World roughly 50 years after his first voyage.) They evolved from the small gourds of South America that were known for a terribly bitter flesh but delicious protein-rich edible seeds. It was due to the versatility of the seeds that the North American Indians eventually sought to cultivate them throughout North America. The original species (from which these later-date pumpkins originated) dates back to 8,000 BC where archaeologists detected evidence of pumpkin seeds in ancient burial caves in Mexico.
The Pilgrim Fathers who landed in Massachusetts in 1620 were tragically ill prepared for a life of farming and sustainable crops and roughly half their crew perished that very first winter. Many more would have succumbed had it not been for the Patuxet Indians who through a lot of gesturing and grunting taught the Fathers how to grow and sow pumpkins using herring for fertilizer. It was at the first Thanksgiving celebration meal that the pumpkin was served as a boiled vegetable. The origin of pumpkin pie comes from the original way of serving pumpkin as a dessert by slicing off the pumpkin top (where the knotty stem puckers into the flesh), removing the seeds, and filling the cavity with milk, spices (cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg) and honey. The pumpkin was then baked in the hot ashes of a dying fire.
From a linguistic approach, the original name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for “large melon” which is “pepon”. “Pepon” was eventually changed by the French into “pompon” and the English then altered the word into “ pumpion” until the American colonists, always wanting to have the last word, changed it into “pumpkin”.
As backyards sprout ghouls and ghosts made of sheets that flap in the October wind, Halloween candy fills the grocery store. The origin of Halloween dates back at least 3,000 years ago to the Celtic celebration of Samhain. To commemorate the evening, druids built huge sacred bonfires. The Celts wore elaborate costumes, usually masks of animal heads and pelts, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When in the 800s, Christianity had spread into the Celtic lands Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saint’s Day a day to celebrate saints and martyrs and people rejoiced in a similar way to Samhain with parades and bonfires and costumes of devils and angels and animals. Jack-o-lanterns were lit to welcome deceased loved ones back into the world and to act as a barrier to evil spirits. Trick or treat!
Pumpkin Tea Bread
2 2/3 cup all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp all spice
½ tsp nutmeg
½ cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp golden syrup or light corn syrup
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup milk (or buttermilk)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 9 x 5 inch pan.
Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles cornmeal. (can be done in a food processor). Stir in sugar.
In another bowl, whisk together syrup, pumpkin, milk and add to the flour mixture. Turn into pan and bake from 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Let cool 30 minutes and serve with homemade cherry compote or vanilla ice cream.
