"A soul of boiled beef, a body of damp paper, with a heart like a pumpkin fricasseed in snow" so we are told the courtesan Ninon (Anne de Lenclos) born 1620 in Paris, described the son of Marquis de Sévigné.
Alas, until the past few years when the merry merchants discovered that Halloween as celebrated North American style could pump extra
mazumah into their tills, pumpkins were
persona non grata in the Old World.
Not so to the irrepressible W.C. Fields: "I used to know a girl down there. Sadie! Yes. Some pumpkins! Maybe you've heard about her? She done me dirt, she did. Well, I wasn't the only one. At least I'm alive to tell about it!" Doubtlessly the Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario (
gvgo.ca $25 membership) would agree.
It is far past the time when gardeners searching for something different can commence raising gargantuan pumpkins (or squash to be botanically correct). How about pumpkin pots? "They look great and are simple to make," advises Andrew Hind in
Canadian Garden Centre magazine. Choose a relatively large pumpkin, he suggests. Place a flowerpot of, say, yellow chrysanthemums or purple fall asters on top of the pumpkin. Use a black felt marker to trace around the bottom of the pot. Now cut a hole along the tracing, scrape out the innards of the pumpkin and then wipe clean. Pop the pot of flower, well watered, inside.
Voila--a sure showstopper for the front porch good, Hind says, for about three weeks. Feel free to personalize with your own choice of fall plants such as flowering cabbage or kale.
Then there was Captain Bligh of
The Bounty, as recorded in a journal of about 1787, who declared, "I'll see who will dare refuse the pumpkin, or anything else I may order served out! You damned scoundrels, I'll make you eat grass, or anything you can catch, before I've done with you!"
Perhaps his crew had anticipated a later use for pumpkin pie filling as recorded by
New Scientist magazine (19 November 1994). U.S. patent number 5 356 626 was awarded to Richard Yeo and Debra Welchel, of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in Dallas. Finding pumpkin pie filling unsuitable, they invented a blend polyvinyl, starches, natural gums and gelatins, all water soluble, plus insoluble fibres and resins, plus water. No, far from use in an industrial kitchen, the intrepid inventors required an effective substitute for human faeces to test on disposable diapers. Previous attempts to make do with peanut butter or pumpkin pie mix had failed--their liquids and solids separated too rapidly, noted
New Scientist
