The East King Trailhead(tm), the community quarterly for East King County

"Everything you always wanted to know about pumpkins*

*BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK"

By Maia Eisen

Consider the pumpkin: orange, round, romantic. Every Halloween, Linus sits in the patch, waiting with faith and conviction for the Great Pumpkin. What fosters the pumpkin mystique? As patches erupt across the landscape each Fall, what draws us to search for the perfect pumpkin? What inspires giant-pumpkin competitions and websites devoted to gruesomely-carved-pumpkin designs?

Rich in nutrients, rich in history

The pumpkin is tasty and nutritious; low in calories, fat, and sodium; high in fiber; and a good source of Vitamins A, B, and C, as well as beta carotene, potassium, and iron.

Long before European settlers arrived, Native Americans used pumpkins for food. Hungry Pilgrims recognized a good thing. They threw pumpkins in soup, made beer out of them, and for dessert would scrape out a pumpkin’s gooey guts, then fill the shell with milk, honey, and spices and bake it over the fire.

Our modern-day Thanksgiving would not be complete without pumpkin pie. But the heart of the pumpkin’s aura is Halloween, the pumpkin’s night of gory glory, when the glow of ghoulishly-grinning jack-o’-lanterns light the darkness.

How did this cheerful-colored New-World vegetable acquire such a macabre alter ego?

The legend of Stingy Jack

The custom of the jack-o’-lantern began in Ireland. The story goes something like this: There was a tight-fisted drunk named Stingy Jack who tricked the devil into postponing his soulful descent. But after suffering a premature, alcohol-induced death, Stingy Jack roamed the earth with his trusty hollowed-out turnip, a glowing coal provided by the devil lighting his way. He came to be called Jack of the Lantern, or Jack o’ Lantern.

In Ireland and Scotland, it became a custom to carve scary faces on hollowed-out turnips and potatoes and set them by the door with a coal or candle inside. Immigrants to this country soon found that native pumpkins made a much better jack-o’-lantern. And thus an industry was launched.

U-Pick it

“U-Pick” pumpkin patches offer less common pumpkin varieties and fun family activities.

East King County U-Pick patches vary in size. Changing Seasons Farm in Carnation offers an intimate thirty-by-150-foot patch in a pastoral setting. Also in Carnation is Remlinger Farms, a destination farm-theme park with a restaurant, bakery, on-site market, and Kid’s Fun Park. The Fun Park features farm animals, pony rides, train rides, a corn maze, night flashlight haunt, and jack-o’-lantern wagon ride.

The Nursery at Mount Si in North Bend has a sizeable U-Pick patch and a host of fun happenings scheduled throughout October. This season, they’ve grown over a dozen different varieties of pumpkins and at least as many varieties of squash and gourds. “Looks like the best crop we’ve ever had,” notes nursery manager CeCe Napier. The medley of sunflowers scattered among the pumpkins make the fields especially festive.
A few of the more unusual pumpkins at the Nursery at Mt. Si include the bright white Baby Boo, black-striped Kakai Specialty, and the whopper Big Max. Snack Jack is the “jack of all trades” among pumpkins, says CeCe: It’s a good carving pumpkin, has good flesh for eating, and has so-called “hulless” seeds, great for roasting and snacking.

Kids will enjoy the free hay rides, face-painting, and hot chocolate and cider at the Nursery at Mt. Si. Greenhouse #4, converted to a play space for the month, has a hay jump and other fun activities. (It can also be rented out for birthday parties.) Be sure to check out the fabulous jack-o’-lanterns carved by Mount Si’s creative crew (for inspiration and for sale), and pick up a handy carving kit with tools and patterns (just $5.99).

You carve it

With a set of carving tools on hand, the only limit to jack-o’-lantern designs is your imagination. Your local library is a great resource for carving ideas. Pumpkin Carving, by Edward Palmer (Sterling Publishing, 2002) is my favorite library find. It has easy instructions and 42 creative templates you can photocopy, and resize to fit your pumpkin.

A few websites with carving instructions and printable patterns include fabulousfoods.com, pumpkinnook.com, and pumpkinlady.com. If weird is more your thing, check out extremepumpkins.com. Don’t miss the Martha Stewart page.

Here are a few carving tips garnered from these sites: Cut an irregular shape for the lid, and angle the knife blade inward so the lid has a surface to rest on. Use an ice cream scoop to scrape out the innards. Scrape the inside until the walls are no more than one inch thick. Save the seeds for snacks. They are high in protein, zinc, and unsaturated fatty acids (the good kind).

If you use a pattern, tape or pin it to the pumpkin with straight pins. Use the your carving set’s small poker to poke little holes on the lines of the design. Remove the pattern and rub flour over the design. It will stick in the holes, making the design easier to see.

Always cut out the small parts of the design first. Work from the center of the design outward. Cut big areas into smaller pieces to make them easier to remove. Rinsing the inside out with a mild bleach solution slows the decaying process. And last, cut a small hole in the lid to let the heat and smoke of the candle out.

You grow it

If your visit to the U-Pick patch left you with the urge to grow your own next year, Mount Si’s Napier offers the following tips:

Till compost (or composted manure) and lime into soil before planting. This year in her home garden, Napier used the “farm-yard blend” manure sold at Mount Si, and “the plants are the biggest I’ve ever had.” Lime makes the soil less acidic so the plants can draw more of the nitrogen from the soil.

Pumpkins need space. Mound the amended soil into small hills four-to-six feet apart. Sow seeds in late May after danger of frost is past. Plant four-to-five seeds per hill, thinning to two plants per hill after they sprout. To get bigger pumpkins, pick off half the flowering blossoms from each stem.

Water deeply for good root growth. Water regularly once a week, or twice if it’s been hot and dry. An empty tuna can makes a good measuring device for a sprinkler—When it is full, turn off your sprinkler. Keep after the weeds, or they will steal nutrients from the pumpkins.
Adequate pollination is imperative. Consider keeping Mason bees. They are solitary, don’t sting, and it’s a fun project for kids to watch the bees in their houses. The Grange in downtown Issaquah sells Mason bee houses.

The Great Pumpkin

The current record for most monstrously-sized pumpkin is 1,502 pounds, set in 2006 by Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island. If you hanker to witness extreme pumpkin size locally, there are weigh-offs this fall at the Puyallup Fair (September 7), The Farm in Snohomish, Scholz Farm, and Central Market (in Shoreline). See the Pacific Northwest Giant Pumpkin Grower’s website for dates and details at pnwgpg.com.

Imagine Linus’ face if The Great Pumpkin actually showed up and it weighed 1,502 pounds. Well, pumpkins are supposed to be scary. And perhaps the contradictory notion of a scary vegetable is part of its mystique. Happy pumpkin season! ■

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