'Tis the Season...for Pumpkin!

Labor Day is over, so you know what that means? No more white jeans, right? Or is that "cool" now? I don't know - fashion was never my strong point. No, no...labor day is over and now it means that the grocery stores are going to be flooded with pumpkin E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G! Pumpkin spiced Cheerios. Pumpkin bagels. Pumpkin tea. Pumpkin coffee. Pumpkin peanut butter. So much pumpkin!

I love pumpkin as much as the next fall loving girl, but I prefer to get my pumpkin from the garden. A few years ago, I fell in love with the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin. Good flavor, great yield! They are doing great in my squash jungle this year and I harvested my first one a few weeks ago. They hold well in storage, but since I was looking to start my fall baking, I decided to roast it.

Long Island Cheese Pumpkin

Roasting is simple - cut the pumpkin in half, place cut side down on a cookie sheet, add a little water and pop it in a 350 degree oven. Check on it periodically and when the skin is softened on the pumpkin, pull it out. Let it cool and then scoop the flesh into a food processor. Whiz that baby up and let it drain through some cheesecloth. Measure it out and freeze in quart bags for future use. I freeze mine flat on a cookie sheet first for better stacking in the freezer. You know, when you get a hankering for some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Or maybe some pumpkin bagels. I made some a few years ago...think I might have to pull out that recipe and make them again.

This pumpkin gave me 7 cups of pumpkin puree. Take that canned pumpkin! I have 5 more in the garden, so I should be able to fulfill all my pumpkin dreams this fall and winter. What about you? What's your favorite pumpkin treat?

A Gallon of Pure Love

Yesterday, I travelled to Springs, Pa for the Annual Springs Folk Festival. I look forward to it every year. The biggest reason? This:

Yes, that's a gallon of pure Grade B PA Maple Syrup. I grew up a Grade A gal, but age has changed me. I'm in love with the depth of Grade B now. The real reason I like it? The price tag! $40 for a gallon. We love to support our WV farmers when we can, but my heart will always be in PA when in comes to maple syrup. When you're a maple princess, I think there is some sort of unspoken rule about a lifelong commitment to the real stuff.

There is an Amish community in the area and many have carts set up along the road to and from the festival. We visit the same family every year and that is where we found delicata squash! Yesterday, though, I picked up 2 pie pumpkins to roast. Dan wants to make hard cider and there is a cider press nearby where you can buy gallons of unpasteurized cider. I picked up five gallons, 3 for cider and 2 for drinking. When we start out orchard, one of our goals is to make cider yearly. Kole even asked Dan the other day, "Daddy, can we build our own press so we can make cider?" Now, who can say no to that!

The Preparations Have Started

Can you believe that tomorrow is the first day of October?! Yeah, neither can we. We sure do love our passive solar home and when the sun shines, it gets HOT in here. But, for other times, we use a woodstove. And a woodstove needs...well, wood.

Dan took most of Sunday pulling down a tree that split during the derecho two years ago. From what we can determine using a tree ID book, it's an elm. So, it's a hardwood and it's HEAVY. The kids and I enjoyed watching Dan do his work with the chainsaw and he enjoyed being manly and hooking up a chain to the truck to pull it out.

He's not feeling as manly now...he has a terrible reaction to posion ivy. And he apparently got some on his wrists and then wiped sweat from his brow. Sooooo....his eyes are now all swollen. He looks like he might have been in a fight, sans the black and blue color. Or maybe it happened Sunday night when I COULD NOT get him to wake up when Kole needed him. Nothing like laying with two kids, who want to be wide awake, at 1:40 AM while he was dead to the world. I tried everything, short of telling him the house was on fire. I didn't think that would go over very well....

Anyhow, we are well on our way to getting some wood ready. The big pile is well seasoned wood and the neatly stacked pile is the part of the tree that wasn't dead. So, we have a headstart for next year!

Now, if I can just talk Dan into cleaning the chimney soon rather than waiting until there was ice on the (metal) roof like last year! What preparations have you started for winter?

Roasting pumpkins

Pumpkins are the epitome of fall for me. Lovely orange hues, scary Jack O'lanterns,  and roasted goodness. Roasting a pie pumpkin is so easy and so economical!

Just cut it in half, throw in a 350 degree oven, roast, puree and wah-lah! Pies, cookies, bread, bagels, pumpkin roll.  Great, now I'm hungry :-)