 | ||||||
| ||||||
We all know jack-o'-lanterns are a tradition on All Hallow's Eve.
Halloween simply wouldn't be the same without pumpkins glowing on porch rails as children look for tricks or treats. As a child, I was afraid of jack-o'-lanterns even though they grew as ordinary pumpkins in the garden all summer long. I began to suspect that the Moon had something to do with it, for the Moon is especially bright around Halloween. We set out into the dark night with only the hideous, candle-illuminated faces and the light of the Moon to lead us back home.
As I grew older, I realized it wasn't the fault of the pumpkins. We were after all, the carvers of those faces. But I did wonder just how this custom had come about. It seems an Irish story claims there was an old man named Stingy Jack too mean for heaven or hell. So upon death he was cursed to walk the earth with only the Moon to light his way. If he could find them, however, Stingy Jack carved out turnips, potatoes, or
rutabagas and placed a burning coal inside. Since his name was Jack and he carried a lantern, his name became "Jack of the Lantern" or "Jack-o'-lantern." It became a tradition on All Hallow's eve, the night when spirits were loosed to walk the earth, to carve vegetables, place a light inside, and put them in windows or doors. This was meant to scare off Stingy Jack or any other spirits that might be lingering around. Eventually, pumpkins became the favored carving item in America.
Pumpkins are abundant at that time of year, and they make quite an impressive lantern. That's why Washington Irving put the pumpkin in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Pumpkins are the scariest vegetables around.
Growing Your Own Jack
Native Americans favored pumpkins for food, and so did the colonists. It's a holiday tradition to have pumpkin pie at the Thanksgiving table, just like the early settlers did. All pumpkin varieties have hard shells, but certain varieties are said to be best for eating or for decoration.
The eating varieties are the buff-colored sugar-pie or Dickinson, the Golden Delicious, and the Small Sugar. There's also a squash, the Lumina that resemble the pumpkin except that it is white-skinned--it makes for a ghostly jack-o'-lantern. For carving, there's the Big Max, which grows to twenty pounds or more. Still not enough? Well, you could grow a
pumpkin the size of your truck. This variety, called Dill's Atlantic Giant, was developed by Howard Dill of Ontario. Or you can grow miniature pumpkins; there's Jack Be Little or Munchkin, each growing one pound or less, or Spookie and Small Sugar at two to eight pounds. There's also a middle ground--Jackpot, Autumn Gold, and Ghost rider--each weighing in from eight to twelve pounds.
Even with all the varieties, pumpkins are easy to grow. To do so, you must plant the seed when the ground is fairly warm and the danger of frost has passed. Place three or four seeds per hill and then thin to the best two vines. To grow larger pumpkins, select a few of the developing fruits to keep on each vine and pinch off the rest. Insects you have to watch for are vine borer, the pickleworm, and squash bugs. Since bees pollinate pumpkins, you should welcome them freely to your
garden. Without them, you wouldn't get much of a harvest and what little that come would be poorly shaped. To harvest, merely wait until the shell has hardened and the color of the pumpkin is good. You'll also want to harvest before the first heavy frost. Cut your pumpkin off the vine with a sharp knife, leaving a good stem on your pumpkin. That's all there is to it.
The Secret to Growing Huge Pumpkins
The secret to growing huge pumpkins is work. To start, you should prepare your seedbed by mixing fertilizer into the soil. Plant three to five seeds per mound and thin to a single plant. Three weeks after seeding apply one cup of nitrogen fertilizer around the vine. Repeat every two or three weeks. Keep your plant well-watered all summer and allow only one fruit to develop on each plant. You may want to keep straw under the fruit to keep it from staying wet and rotting against the ground.
Eating Lots of Pumpkin
After all your hard work, not only can you decoratively display part of your harvest, you can eat it too--in all kinds of delicious ways. Pumpkin is actually good for you--one cup of pumpkin contains over half of the daily recommended allowance for vitamin A. Pumpkins are also high in vitamin C, niacin, pantothenic acid, and potassium. Other minerals include phosphorus, silicon, iron, magnesium, and calcium. Pumpkinseeds are high in zinc and other minerals.
Dried Pumpkin Flour
This flour can be used to replace a quarter of the wheat flour in
recipes to add moisture, nutrition, and color. Dry the inner fruit of the pumpkin in thin slices. When dried, place in a 175 degree oven for 15 minutes to pasteurize, then pulverize to a powder in a blender. You can store the flour in plastic bags or jars with tight-fitting lids.
by Carly Wall,
copyright 2000
Jack-O'-Lanterns on a Moonlit Night
Autumn begins with a subtle change in the light, with skies a deeper blue, and nights that become suddenly clear and chilled. The season comes full with the first frost, the disappearance of migrant birds, and the harvesting of the season's last crops.
Jerry Dennis and Glenn Wolff
Among the lighting tricks in the classic film Dracula: Twin pencil-spotlights were shined in Bela Lugosi's eyes to give Count Dracula his legendary hypnotic stare.
|
