Fall pumpkins

Last October I tagged along as the grandchildren wandered straw strewn paths between rows of pumpkins perusing for the perfect one to use at a barbecue party that evening.
All around pre-schoolers hefted pumpkins – the bigger, the better – as the proprietor perched, ready to pounce to prevent any possible pumpkin plop.
Pumpkins chosen, purchased and put in the van, we piled in and prepared for the fun.
Party plans included converting pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns: Cut open, scoop out the pulp and carve a face on pumpkins, put in a candle and light. A perfect plan – except prohibitions against pointed knives sidelined the little ones until the papas came to the rescue.
One father’s puzzled expression hinted he had never done this before, but if the dads were supposed to hollow out a pumpkin shell – then he would do it. He spent a long time cutting out the top plug. Finally, someone handed him and his daughter a spoon to scrape and scoop pulp and seeds out onto newspapers.
I just watched. I’ve done my fair share of prying open pumpkins to use in pies. Especially the fall of our early years of poverty, when our garden prospered and produced 27 hard, sweet pie pumpkins. I began processing the 27 pumpkins early in the day. Each pumpkin provided enough pulp for one quart jar or two pies. Half way through the process, I looked at the orange filled jars and called to report my progress to my husband.
“We already have plenty, do you think I should do the rest?”
“It wouldn’t hurt,” he said.
It surely did not hurt the budget to have the extra food – that year’s prosperity kept us in pumpkin pies for years.
However my arm did hurt from hours spent popping open pumpkins. The next day I wore a homemade sling to ease the pain in my arm.
I never canned pumpkins again.
Fortunately, jack-o’-lantern pumpkins are not like pie pumpkins. Jack pumpkins have a large, soft shell. The flesh makes a washed-out tasting pie, but it does carve easily to produce the intricacies of a pumpkin face.
With more children than pumpkins, each lantern ended up with two or three faces. The children outlined their idea of a jack-o’-lantern face. Following their patterns, papas produced goggle eyes, lopsided mouths, slits of noses and an occasional crooked ear in a duo or trio of faces on each Jack-o’-lantern.
One of the mothers gathered up the pumpkin seeds and toasted them in the oven with a little Worcestershire sauce, salt and garlic. They tasted autumny – partly because we did not realize how long it took to cook them. Before we knew it, they had toasted almost too brown to eat.
As the day waned, candles were produced to put inside the pumpkins. A deep reach into the bottom of the pumpkin provided a slit to hold a candle. Eager little hands begged for a turn to light the match and to stretch down into the damp pumpkin shell and carefully light its candle. Plugs placed over the scoop hole of empty pumpkins insured that only candle smoke filled the now hollow, orange globes. The smoke slowly blackened the inside of the jack-o’-lanterns.
We leaned back in our chairs and enjoyed the first hints of fall weather, the neighbor’s favorite barbecue foods and the sounds of children playing in the yard.
Life is good in the fall of the year. Very good.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times.)