Friday, November 27, 2009

From Pumpkin Seed to Pumpkin Pie

A Story in Pictures.


















17 comments:

Karen said...

You tell a great story with pictures!
Love the 'knife' one :-)
Karen

ashley said...

Pumpkin pie is my favorite... for breakfast or dessert! You have inspired me to use my pumpkins sitting on my front porch. :)

Susan said...

Karen, thanks! Re: knife one...me, too. When Halloween came and the pumpkins were nowhere near ripe we were a little sad, but we looked forward to Thanksgiving and are so glad we had pie from our home grown pumpkins.

Ashley, so nice to hear from you! We miss all of you! I hope you made your pies. We had our second one for breakfast this morning. Mmmm.

Barbara Maclay Cameron said...

How wonderful, amazing, inspiring!!

feecaro said...

My favorite is the sliced-open, hollow one sinking into the counter top like a punctured balloon. Great story!

gina said...

What a great story to tell! Everyone should experience from seed to table at least once!!

Susan said...

Barbara, it is amazing isn't it? It is a pumpkin pie we really felt grateful for having seen how long it takes to make the pumpkin! I wish I had taken some photos of the vines as they crept across the bee yard and took over the paths.

Carolyn, I can't believe you are blog commenting what with Nanowrimo and packing. I feel honored! :) I hope to continue the pumpkin's story next year. We're drying the seeds we scooped out and planning to plant them next year.

Gina, so true. We planted arugula from seed and have been loving it--the kids grab some on the way to the car and then the whole car smells arugulicious. But it only takes a few weeks from seed to mouth. The pumpkins were 126 days from planting to pie.

Kristin said...

I enjoyed your "movie" of photos, especially the one with Evelyn chomping the goodness you grew, processed and baked.

The soil in your composter looked fantastic. Was it your own?

Susan said...

Kristin, it was not our own soil. It was the veggie mix from American Stone and Soil in Richmond. I've tried growing vegetables several times and just planted them in our rock hard clay and they always died. Planting them in this soil has been like magic.

Judith said...

So I guess it was yummy with a greenish pumpkin too, huh?

Susan said...

Judith, we googled "how to tell if a pumpkin is ripe" and put our pumpkins through the tests: hollow noise when knocked on? Check. Tough skin that dents but doesn't break when you poke it with your fingernail? Check. Stem hard? Check. Apparently they needn't be orange to be ripe. And our pie was yummy but maybe not as yummy as yours. :)

Anonymous said...

awesome! is there a cut-off point for when pumpkin pie stops being seasonal? because, really... I could eat it all year long.

Susan said...

Barbara, we froze half the pulp thinking it would be great for Christmas, but now you have me thinking...why not make it for St. Patty's Day and see if it isn't just as good.

patricia said...

I always love your writing, but I was willing to live without your words this once because it was such a good story. Fabulous.

jadegreen said...

What a great blog! I love that your kids learned what it was like to grow a pumpkin and then eat it. I didn't grow a pumpkin until I was an adult, but I still find it fascinating. The stuff in the cans is fine -- but growing it yourself both takes away some of the mystery and adds another new and exciting dimension

Susan said...

Tricia, I was thinking of you as I didn't write words. I was thinking I'd go for no words rather than words as (as you wrote) "dangly earrings or platform shoes for images." If you are wondering about that see patriciazaballos.com/2009/06/24/a-post-without-an-image/

My excuse for wordlessness and a lack of blog posts is that I have been writing the other thing. The novel.

Jade, welcome and thanks for leaving a comment! You are so right--the mystery of how you turn a pumpkin into that orange mush in a can is solved. But we have a whole new dimension of patience, gratitude and anticipation..now we are waiting to see if the seeds we planted will sprout..and bring the process full circle.

Stefaneener said...

I don't know how I missed this. Nice! Pumpkins (all winter squash, actually, are such gifts). Soil does make the difference, doesn't it? Makes me want to make that butternut squash soup I have in reserve.

And can I read the novel now?