Don’t Waste That Halloween Pumpkin

In the wake of rumors that canned pumpkin isn’t really pumpkin at all, but squash in thin disguise (see here for the story, but know that the story is  actually a bit more complicated), it’s time to talk about how to make real pumpkin foods.  I’m not taking sides in this dispute but I’ve long been a proponent of preparing your own pumpkin from the indisputably real thing for baking.

It’s really not hard, though it does take a bit more time and effort than using a can opener to access a bunch of the fake stuff. I normally buy several nice pumpkins in early to mid-October for decorations. I tend to leave them as is in my displays, but if you want to decorate, use paint or markers. Don’t carve them until the day before Halloween and they’ll keep in good shape unless you happen to live in places where nothing survives outside for very long.



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I carve mine on Halloween and put candles in them to create classic jack-o-lanterns. Once the festivities are over, though, I bring them inside and wash them off.  The next day, I cut them into quarters or eighths, depending on the size, and put the pieces on baking sheets lined with aluminum foil. I bake them at 450 F (a very hot oven), skin-side down, for an hour or until a fork slides easily into the flesh.
Let it cool, scrape off any of the stringy stuff from the top and peel the flesh away from the tough skin. I put the flesh in a blender and puree it until reasonably smooth, then measure it into one- or two-cup containers.

I use some of it to make several loaves of pumpkin bread and a batch or two of pumpkin muffins and freeze the rest.  Here’s my favorite pumpkin bread recipe:

Pumpkin Bread
3 cups self-rising flour (or 3 cup plain flour + 4-5 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. salt)
3 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin
1 cup melted butter

Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
Form a well in the center and eggs, pumpkin, and butter.
Stir until moistened.
Pour into 2 well-greased loaf pans
Bake at 350 degrees, 45 – 50 minutes. 

A Child's Hallowe'en in San Francisco

'Arawn' - Ruler of Annwn
(the Underworld), illustration
 by Ioan Einion, © Alys Einion, Y Lolfa

All Hallows' Eve has been celebrated across the Christian World since the formation of a structured church. Calan Gaeaf (Kal-ahn GEYE-ahv), as it is known in Wales celebrating the start of winter, has been a festival since earliest pagan Celtic times. In Ireland, the festival is known as Samhain (SOW-en), celebrating the decay of life and is derived from an ancient cult of the dead.

Hallowe’en as we know it today, did not exist in America, or for that matter anywhere in the world, until the great influx of Irish immigrants in the 19th Century. This day of ghouls and goblins would not exist now if not for Irish children extorting food and money from their neighbors at the behest of their parents, with threats of tricks if the better-off neighbors refused to submit to giving treats.

Although the Irish were Roman Catholic, the religious holiday melded with the pagan to facilitate the youthful blackmailers’ chicanery.

During my childhood, Hallowe’en was a children’s event, anticipated throughout the early Fall with intricate plans for costumes. Gypsy or witch, princess or fairy were the choices we girls preferred. Boys chose Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula or headless ghosts.

From the moment the sun dropped below Twin Peaks, we were out in packs of threes, fives or tens running from one house to the next, ringing every doorbell. I lived in the Haight-Ashbury and our territory for our night of extortion was as far as we could go without getting lost.

Ceridwen, the Witch,
illustration by Ioan Einion,
© Alys Einion, Y Lolfa 

If we breached the entry of an apartment complex, we had access to every resident. Once in a while, there was a party going on at which we caught glimpses of Hallowe’en Future: adults behaving like … us! The only difference was that the adults were not subject to extreme sugar highs – theirs was a high of a different kind.

The total world domination of Hallowe’en as experienced in the USA was not achieved until the appearance of the film, E. T. Phone Home, in which the opening scene was the epitome of my childhood escapades. Even then, fully three decades passed before “Trick or Treat” on October 31st became the norm in the six countries of Britain, five of which are Celtic.

We cannot go back to the innocent times of our childhood. In this city, Hallowe’en is not an event in which children can participate with any sense of the safety, excitement and freedom that I and my fellow witches and monsters enjoyed. Adults have reclaimed the ancient cult of the dead and any aspect of the religious meaning is subsumed by Bacchanalian excesses.