It’s Everything Pumpkin in October

With a slight nip in the early morning air – it is definitely fall and that means it is pumpkin time! Should you cook or carve is the question!

From coffee to pastry counters, pumpkin is the flavor of the month. The grocery produce area has large, dedicated sections for pumpkins of all sizes. October means jack-o’-lanterns and pumpkin pies. 

Pumpkins and its squash cousins were very important to the early European settlers as these were some of the first crops they planted when they arrived in the North American continent in 1621. According to historians, even Christopher Columbus wrote about the pumpkins he saw during his voyages and brought some back, as did other Europeans. If you dig deeper into the early days of the American colonies, the pies most prepared were pumpkin mixed in with other field grown vegetables.

The early settlers pretty much cook anything that they could grow into soups or baked in a thick pastry crust. For tarts, they added more sugar and pumpkin, not apple, was the dominant filling because apple orchards hadn’t been planted yet.

In the seventeenth century, you would have had to cut off the top of the pastry crust, scoop out the filling made of pumpkin and other vegetables – the pie acted as the container to hold the rest of the vegetable fillings in.

Included in John Josselyn’s “New-England’s Rarities Discovered,” published in 1670, one of the first American pumpkin recipes was included. It was for a side dish from diced pumpkin that had been slow cooked in a pot over the course of a day. Once the pumpkin was cooked, butter and spices were added, much like the recipes for mashed squash or sweet potatoes we have today. 

Fast forward to the 21st century and pumpkin pie is a sweet dessert and Thanksgiving meal is not complete without the pumpkin pie.

To Cook or to Carve?

Before you decide on cooking, it is recommended that you pick the right pumpkin. The local grocery store has displays of pumpkins of all sizes, geared mostly towards carving or decorating.

The cooking pumpkins are rounder and smaller and usually labeled “sugar pumpkins” or pie pumpkins.” For cooking, it is about texture and taste and sugar pumpkins usually are sweeter and less stringy with a higher sugar content.

Cook pumpkin like any winter squash: you can roast it whole, steam it or if you are like me, I carve the seeds out and cut them into smaller pieces and put them into a slow cooker!

This is how I get my season’s supply of purees for baking and soups and they freeze very well. No need to peel the pumpkin – add about a half cup of water and slow cook for about four hours, then walk away. Check back and the skin will be easy to peel with a butter knife while still warm.

The cooked pumpkin will be soft – easy to mash with a fork or use a blender lightly – for about 10 second. Transfer the puree to serving size freezer bags and when ready to use, take one or two bags and defrost overnight in the fridge. They are all ready for your favorite pumpkin recipes.

For carving or jack-o'-lanterns, look for a pumpkin that is taller giving you space for your “scary artwork” – usually they have less flesh making it easier to carve. For carving, you are looking for a nice shape and a pumpkin that will last many days once it is carved. These pumpkins are grown specifically to carve jack-o’-lanterns. For those jack-o’-lanterns after Halloween - don’t toss them out! Wash off the artwork, cut them up and slow cook them – easy as pumpkin pie! 

Cooking with pumpkin is an everyday staple with many cultures around the world. But we are conditioned to think of just Libby’s canned and jack-o’-lanterns.

October is “Pumpkin Everything Month” – pumpkin spiced coffee, bagels, bread, pancakes, pies, pumpkin biscotti, muffins, log rolls, spice cocktails, lasagna, and an easy stuffed pumpkin – healthy and delicious. 

And don’t forget to save the seeds!