Pumpkins are on my mind today.  Yesterday I went to the supermarket, but they only had decorative, tiny pumpkins.  I went to our local farm and produce market.  They only had giant, decorative pumpkins and white pumpkins.  I asked when the sugar pumpkins were coming in.  The younger staff had no idea what I was talking about.

Sugar pumpkins is a generic designation for a suitable pie pumpkin.  An older woman came out and spoke to me.  She knew about sugar pumpkins.  But they weren’t carrying any.  According to this woman, people don’t want to EAT pumpkins anymore.  They want the stringy, tasteless large decorative pumpkins.  She told me to switch to another squash, which is what is in those “pure pumpkin” cans you might be buying.

Most years, I have a pumpkin patch.  I don’t currently have any ripe ones or I would never have been engaging in that conversation.  But my pumpkin patch is all the more dear to me now because I can trust them.  They’re real, they’re edible, and they’re darned tasty.  Not to mention really cute.  Pumpkins are a cute food, even if they do often weigh four times what my cat weighs.

People, people.  Don’t send pumpkins the way of the land line phone!  Eat up!  They still sell a spice jar called Pumpkin Pie Spice.  That’s got to mean something.

– JD