My Third Autumn in Boston

Living in a city such as Boston makes it easy for me to miss the changing of the leaves or just how quickly it starts getting dark when fall approaches, but one thing I never miss out on is baking real pumpkins!

It was during my year in Jesuit Volunteer Corps that I realized my love (and hate) of cooking with actual pumpkins as opposed to the quite convenient can. I remember clearly Jackie’s (my co-worker and housemate) and my goal to educate parents at the daycare center where we worked about the benefits of eating locally and in season. We did not know what we were getting ourselves into! Soon we were baking dozens of pumpkins! Our hands were stained orange, blenders were broken, pumpkins were left to burn, and the list goes on. Through all of this, despite everyone’s comments that it is way easier and tastes the same to buy the can, I held fast to my belief in the value of using real pumpkins.

I have certainly gotten better at using elbow grease to scoop out the seeds and can quite easily bake a pumpkin and turn it into puree, but it still requires slowing down and finding time in you busy life to dedicate to the preparation of food. And there is something beautiful about the labor of preparing food. No matter what is going on in my life: whether I am in my first year teaching, a graduate student, or a JV, I have always found time for pumpkins in my life. That being said, there is something quite comforting in this process that anchors me.

When I think about living in Boston, I think about hectic, busy schedules and constant motion. It's a struggle to fight against this trend and to slow down and find time for the things that really mater. On that note, I have decided that baking pumpkins once a year is not enough. It’s with this thought that I hope to embark on something similar to Kingsolver’s quest to eat locally in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I often think of eating on an all local diet, but never have quite gotten all the way there. I realize now how much my many difficult and humorous crazy projects, such as pumpkins have prepared me to quite easily make this transition in my eating habits.

For those of you brave enough to bake your own pumpkin, here's how:

1. Cut the pumpkin in half.
2. Scoop out all the seeds and any dark orange stringy stuff
3. Put the pumpkins face down in a half inch of water in a casserole dish (you can also put them on a cookie sheet with water)
4. Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes as 350 degrees (or until you can easily stick a fork)
5. Scoop out the cooked sqaush from skin. Put it in a food processor with a little bit of water. Mix together until it turns into a puree.

Note: You can also use a blender or try just mashing it up by hand (but good luck to you, man I love my food processor!).