Let the Pumpkin Carving Begin!
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| Josh planning out his design |
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| Attempting to carve out a curve with a regular knife |
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| Attacking the insides! |
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| The spooky result :) |
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| Two very satisfied people with their wonderful creations, my pumpkin is on the left, he lost a tooth. |
Last year Josh and I came to the realisation that pumpkin patches, as we know them, don't really exist in this part of England. This was a shocking discovery for us because we are literally surrounded by farms, I thought that surely one of them would grow pumpkins! I searched long and hard for a patch last year and the nearest one was 2 hours away. Not willing to give up that much time for a pumpkin, we turned to our only other option which was the grocery store. However, upon scanning their so called "large pumpkins" we were far from impressed, the largest one they had was the size of a honeydew melon. Since I basically grew up on a pumpkin patch I was not satisfied with my options. As a child I always chose the largest one my dad had to offer, regardless of its shape, and it usually stood at least 2 foot tall, there was no way I was going to carve that measly thing! Unfortunately, we went without last year.
This year was different. Last spring/summer, I can't really remember, Josh bought a packet of Jack O' Lantern seeds which he planted in our first garden at this house. One of the plants died, but the other 3 survived, and we got 4 glorious pumpkins from the vines! Two of the pumpkins only just started to turn orange, when the vines died for the season, but these 2 beauties you see above were both large, round, and a wonderful orange colour! They probably could have been slightly larger for my standards but then Josh would have needed to use fertiliser and we have a strict organic garden policy. Originally, I was going to make pumpkin pie out of the fillings, but then I remembered how much Hobson loves mashed pumpkin so he is going to get to eat the fillings from our Jack O' Lanterns and I'm going to make pumpkin pie and squash rolls from the other 2 pumpkins we got from the harvest, no need to be greedy. For the squash roll recipe
click here. The recipe was originally my mother's, I've taken her recipe and adapted the preparation of it slightly, you will not be disappointed, this recipe is a must try, especially for Thanksgiving! You can use pumpkin or winter squash, don't put those Jack O' Lanterns in the compost just yet, put the yummy flesh in a recipe first! Of course only do this if your pumpkins haven't already rotted ;)
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to get ready for my first Halloween party since I left the states. Since I won't be able to partake in the adult beverages I plan to devour the children's candy :) I'll post photos later if they come out OK, Josh took my camera with him surfing which means I'll have to rely on my iPhone today.
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