All kinds of pumpkin

It’s Hallowe’en today. Time to carve those pumpkins into frightening faces, and then tomorrow … throw them away. What a pity. Pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes, they’re good to eat, and it’s a shame you rarely see anything but the good old bog-standard Jack o’ Lantern here. They can be large, small, yellow, red, orange, green, even bluish or black, and on mainland Europe they’re much more appreciated.

Enjoy the pumpkins on display, many of them from Le Jardin Extraordinaire in Lieurac , near where we lived in France. And then have a go at the comforting recipe I offer here because you don’t really want to scare the neighbours with an evil orange face peering out of your front window do you?

  • An arbour of hanging gourds at Le Jardin Extraordinaire
    An arbour of hanging gourds at Le Jardin Extraordinaire
  • A mouse family atop a pumpkin at Le Jardin Extraordinaire
    A mouse family atop a pumpkin at Le Jardin Extraordinaire
  • Scoring patterns on a still-growing pumpkin delivers results like this as it matures. Le Jardin Extraordinaire again.
    Scoring patterns on a still-growing pumpkin delivers results like this as it matures. Le Jardin Extraordinaire again.

#Kinda Square. Today is the final square in Becky’s month long squares project. Thank you Becky, and thank you fellow squarers. It’s been fun. I’ve met kindness, had my interest kindled and met – virtually of course – many bloggers-of-a-kind.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

54 thoughts on “All kinds of pumpkin”

  1. I’m always amazed at people’s ingenuity, even though I don’t much like Halloween itself. My daughter was gambolling around in a ‘skellie’ frock yesterday, peach hair flowing down her back 🙂 🙂 Don’t suppose there’ll be much trick or treating this year, though I’ve got the bag of sweets in case. The gourds are fabulous, aren’t they? Happy Halloween!

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    1. I’m an old stick-in-the-mud that doesn’t do Hallowe’en at all: Though our neighbours’ children will come round, as we’re in a sort of bubble with them. My Egyptian mummy biscuits are ready!

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  2. That – honestly – is the first Hallowee post I enjoyed. H is NOT in our genes. Has that beautifully decorated pumpkin been scratched on the surface? Now, THAT’S my kind of treating a pumpkin. I always buy some smaller ones, a big one I used as a vessel for a large Thanksgiving flower bouquet. I was sorry that I couldn’t carve out more for eating. Stuffed a block floral mousse in the opening to hang on for the flowers. It lasted well over 2 weeks.

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  5. It’s strange isn’t it how it is grown into such a thing. We don’t celebrate either, and in the past I have made sure no lights are on at the front of house so no-one visits!!

    Pumpkins on the other hand I love, and these are all so wonderful. I make a mean pumpkin pie 😀 Will be over shortly to check out your recipe

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    1. I’m quite po-faced about Hallowe’en. Living in Harrogate was quite something because there was an American base nearby, so Hallowe’en was a HUGE deal. I’m happier now that we just have the neighbours’ two delightful small boys trotting round, and that’s IT. Are you bringing pumpkin pie this afternoon? I’m not fond actually, but in a curry – now you’re talking!

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  6. I always feel rather sorry for the much abused poor old pumpkin. post Halloween I once tried using it to make a soup out of one but once it has had a candle inside it, it tastes rather scorched!

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  10. Halloween has always been a non event for us. As a boy our nearest neighbours were half a mile away so no point in tricking or treating. (and it really wasn’t a ‘thing” then anyway) For many years we lived in Germany and they didn’t “do” halloween. The curmudgeon in me thinks that kids have far too many sweet things without me giving them more and, in any case, the season has been commercialised and Americanised into something that it never was in the first place. Bah Humbug – I started early!

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    1. It really looks as if British females over a certain age are Not Into Hallowe’en! Bonfire night’ is there to celebrate my Bolton daughter’s birthday – or so she thought when she was little. And why not?

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  13. I so adore all the different pumpkins and gourds this time of the year. Wonderful photos for Becky’s challenge.
    So sorry I missed the call this morning. Becky and I had the time wrong 😀

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  16. I also like the header image – we don’t see a variety of pumpkins like that here!
    Halloween has also usually passed me by. I remember when as a child, a neighbour had a rather forced fancydress Halloween party. I was rather puzzled by how much kids liked rather endlessly to make cackling laughter while wearing black pointy witches hats and eating liquorice. Mercifully there was not another such party.
    A few years ago a neighbour arranged for neighbourhood kids to go trick-or-treating and we were warned in advance to have goodies ready to hand out when they arrived. We provided an overhead tarpaulin that we put up at the gate as a kind of an awning when it started turning out to be a very wet and rainy day. That evening a group of soggy and tired kids arrived and they all huddled miserably under the awning holding plastic bags open for us to deposit our goodies into. Trick-or-treating has not been repeated here since!
    In my view, there are enough ghouls about without us having to enact any …

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  17. Quite a response to this one Margaret, well done! I loved all of your colorful images and the creativity shown in the many versions of Le Jardin’s efforts is fabulous! The scored pumpkins are my favorites but your header image is truly wonderful as well.

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    1. Thank you! You’ll have gathered I join the clan of – usually older -English bloggers who aren’t keen on the razzmattaz of modern Hallowe’en. Pumpkin soup is the way forward!

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  19. Lovely to see such a variety and beautifully captured. I don’t understand why there aren’t more colourful ones here in UK to buy when there are seeds available and amateurs can grow them. I am only guessing that this tradition (?) is for orange only. Apparently this side of the pond it used to be turnips for the Brits and Irish so Mr Google says.

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    1. I know. We used to hollow out a swede when I was a child. Talk about hard work! And it’s a shame that more kinds of pumpkin haven’t caught on . Some are much tastier than others.

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