According to WTOP, the news is not good:
"This year was not a good one" for pumpkins, said Fenby Moore, vice president of Larriland Farm in Woodbine, echoing the sentiments of many area farmers. He said it was "way too wet and too cool.
I admit, I am one of the people who has helped pumpkins become a big cash crop. I buy multiples...I like a tall oval one to carve with a scary face, and a round one for the jolly classic jack o'lantern, and some small ones to keep around uncarved through the fall.
I don't carve very well, either. I refuse to use the templates, even though those pumpkins turn out really cool, because every year I think I'm going to get better. I don't, but hope springs eternal.
When I was a kid, one year instead of carving the pumpkins we decorated them with paint and mom used them to make pies. She didn't like the idea of wasting the food, I guess, and that thought occurs to me every year, too. But frankly, the fresh pumpkin was a lot stringier than a can of Libby's.
When I was a slightly older kid my brother and I used to go out for pumpkins and cider in the fall. We'd buy multiple bottles of the fresh, unpasturized cider from a farm nearby (it is now a housing development, alas) and stick them in the downstairs refrigerator. A couple weeks later it'd be fizzy and tart. What did we know of fermentation?
So that's my weekend to-do list, this week or next. Pumpkins and cider, even if the pumpkins aren't so good.
Posted by Nic at October 17, 2003 02:38 PM | TrackBack