Pumpkin! The Season's Trappings....

Pumpkins are a very rewarding vegetable for me to grow, as they are almost impervious to any pest in my backyard...once the seed has sprouted, it quickly becomes 30 feet of nonstop vigorous green until one day the glorious blossoms appear. Then the wildlife begins.



All summer the bees are drawn.

They are enamoured with those huge intensely pumpkin yellow blossoms and travel blossom to blossom all over my garden.

Bees of all shapes and sizes.

Huge black ones, tiny little ones and substantial furry honey bees all living together peacefully hovering about 8 inches following the path of the vines.

Watching the pumpkin change from deep blackish green to orange is an appreciable thing as well. 

 Delicious colors and textures forming to make the beauty of the fruit.

We planted sugar babies this year they are just big enough for about 3 cups of pumpkin puree, and I think they are just about perfect.

But...why all this waxing poetic about the pumpkin?

Yup you guessed it...Muffins!

This recipe is so simple I had to post it,

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper liners.

2.In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until smooth. Spoon equal amounts of batter into the prepared muffin cups.
3.Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean.

Find it here

But here is the recipe I made last night. It turned out very well and I used fresh pumpkin. Here's how I did it. I microwaved the pumpkin for 3 minutes just as it grew out of the garden stem and all. Then I took the pumpkin and poked a few knife holes in it, I was afraid it would explode, then I microwaved it for three more minutes. Then I cut the stem off. (It is a beauty, and I want to try to use it in a prim stuffed pumpkin project I have in mind). I returned it to the microwave and blasted it for three more minutes.

Then I took it and quartered it and removed the seeds and pulp (I used rubber gloves because it is rather hot by now) and put it in the micro again for the last 5 minutes covered -to steam a little. Then it was ready to peel (so easy to peel now, the peel is a hard shell that flakes off rather than peels off)

Fresh pumpkin is really fibrous so I food processed the pumpkin with the eggs sugar and oil in the recipe and it turned into the most amazing custard like stuff that you can eat with a spoon... the cook has some privileges you know... and then I could mix the batter by hand.

The end result was worth the effort for sure!

Ah, the finer things in life!

From wiki regarding pumpkins and Halloween:

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time encompassing customs of medieval holy days as well as contemporary cultures. The souling practice of commemorating the souls in purgatory with candle lanterns carved from turnips, became adapted into the making of jack-o'-lanterns. In traditional Celtic Halloween festivals, large turnips were hollowed out, carved with faces and placed in windows to ward off evil spirits.

The carving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America where pumpkins are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips. (laughing..says who?) Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their doorstep after dark. The American tradition of carving pumpkins preceded the Great Famine period of Irish immigration and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.

So there ya have it! When you see folks with pumpkins on their porches be thankful that we are still not in the times where we compuslively carved our root vegetables so as to ward off evil spirits that wished to inhabit our bodies for the year!

I'd rather be baking pumpkin bread...

Or eating...

pumpkin sloppy joes

(one to try)

Blessings!

Precious Autumn Sunshine

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.

- Nathaniel Hawthorne

I am always amazed at the stuff I don't know, like for instance who was Nathaniel Hawthorne? Wow, who knew. Interesting that he changed his name to distance himself from his judge relative John Hathorne (note spelling) connected to the Salem Witch trials.

Here's the year, 1692 1693 and of course I am intrigued. here's a great article. You know who else was accused in the witch trials? Captain John Alden of original Mayflower fame. Wow, again I am amazed at the stuff I don't know.

I always keep away from the demonic if I can possibly help it. I do believe in the world unseen. And there are powers and principalities. Thankfully I know that the Bible is my final word to any moral question I might have.

I Thessalonians 5:21, 22 ²¹Test everything. Hold on to the good. ²²Avoid every kind of evil.  Some translations say FLEE from evil. I think that's easy when I consider the occultic practice of casting a spell, I would flee the scene, but what about the occultic practice of reading my daily horoscope? Is it just curiosity or a major belief system? Any thing that takes me away from my relationship from God is 'sin'. That is my main job, to draw closer to God on a daily basis.

"Sin?" you say. Yup, here's an amazing article. I say amazing, it is concise and Bible based, a quick read.

What a rabbit trail today! The quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne is such a wonderful reminder for us to practice being mindful of all the wonderful moments that we have each and every day, it really struck a chord in my soul. I LOVE autumn sunshine, it is full of shadows. It is a transition time between life and death here in my yard. It starts with a sprinkle of a few brown leaves... a quick glance up to the still green trees and clear blue cloud dotted sky. If I'm not careful...time will cheat me and before I know it I will be shuffling through the leaf carpet!

May we take purposeful moments today and let autumn cover us and envelope us.

Perfect treasures for this season:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/58399715/gloriously-fall-vintage-button-felt

http://www.etsy.com/listing/58397935/felt-brooch-with-vintage-button

And a shameless plug for my soap shop...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/58248166/the-ugs-handmade-soap-seconds

Stop by won't you? Super deal on really lovely items!

Autumn Colors

I love the fact that I live in a part or Oregon where we have different season changes. I relish the fall and all it's glorious colors.

The grapes are just starting to fully ripen. We have 2 old vines in the back, one is a green table grape that makes these mini little ampules of intensely flavored sweet seedless grape. We don't get a bountiful harvest from these, but it's a treat to taste a natural unimproved USA grape, instead of an import as they all are in the supermarket.

Plus a glorious red that has seeds in it. Jelly-o-rama on a good year, but this year it got dug up and put in a pot because it was planted where the greenhouse is.  It will produce for us next year.

October is the month of endings and beginnings here, the nights start to get colder and one by one the veges wilt their way down to become worm food.

 There are two major historical events to investigate surrounding the date of October 31st. The Church's holiday, the start of the Reformation Movement,  the nailing of the theses

And the pagan's holiday, Samhain, which is the basis for Halloween as we know it.

I always have a great curiosity about these two topics at this time of year, it amazes me at how many of the ritual aspects of Samhain we have adopted in mainstream life as we decorate and flip through magazines and 'craftify' this ancient religious practice of the druids. And conversely, I am amazed at the culture and religious practices of the 16th century, the superstitions and rituals that the nailing of the 95 thesis on the church door exposed.

I love to start the decorating at this time of year.

The gold brown red orange black of October and November.

I love the strength in those colors, to chase away the gloomy onset of gray and cloudy days to come.

Find me, always, wishing you a blessing from above!

Isaiah 26:4Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

!