Don't Carve that Pumpkin

Where I live is not a good place to grow pumpkins so, when Halloween comes around each year, I have to buy pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns. Since I also have some recipes for quick breads and pies that my family thinks taste best when made from fresh pumpkin I am conflicted.

I was raised by caregivers who survived the Great Depression. "Waste not, want not!" was a constant refrain in our household. I learned to be green before anyone ever thought of such a concept.

The training I had received increases my conflict when it comes to carving up a perfectly edible vegetable and letting it go to waste. I can save the seeds and roast them in the oven for later snacking. I can scrape some of the pulp away from the sides and have enough for a pie or loaf of quick bread, but injudicious scraping makes the walls too thin and ruins the jack-o-lantern. Add small children, who want to crave their own pumpkin, to the mix and you either have a meltdown or get creative. I got creative.

When I came up with the idea putting candles in the jack-o-lantern was not an option in our household for several reasons. We lived in an historic home at the time with cats, parakeets and small kids. Since no candles allowed was the house policy anyway, this made my problem much easier to solve.

I began by considering the fact that pumpkins keep very well if the skin isn't broken and they are kept cool and dry. There is an abundance of them beginning in late September at very reasonable prices. Once I conceived my brilliant plan I bought enough pumpkins to meet our needs and wants for the rest of the fall and winter.

The first time I did this I had a four year old and was the teacher for her Sunday school group. I had the group over for a "Harvest" celebration. This name was used because Halloween was an unacceptable term for some of the church members.

I got plenty of black construction paper. Before the party I used white Crayola™ Crayons to make a lot of eyes, noses and mouths. I then let the children cut these out with child safe scissors. I also provided the children with pots of homemade glue.

This glue is easily made by putting equal amounts of plain flour and water in small containers. Baby food jars are a good size. If you don't have those small Dixie cups will do. Stir thoroughly. Add more water a bit at a time, stirring well after each addition, until the mixture is the consistence of a thin paste.

Put the glue on one side of the black construction paper features and then place them on the pumpkins. Because the pumpkins are ridged you have to use extra paste to insure the paper will stay stuck to the pumpkin. When finished you have pumpkins with all the features of any self respecting jack-o-lantern and you still have your pumpkins to use for other purposes later in the fall and winter.

When the children got older we started painting the features on the pumpkins with a safe Tempera paint. The paint worked even better than the paper cut outs and eventually let to some very artfully decorated pumpkins.