Story by kayla jordan, Summer 2022
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and fall has been my favorite season. I often think about the pumpkin I got on a school field trip that I took home and carved, discarding the seeds in the garden. That one pumpkin seeded the following spring and provided many more pumpkins to carve and make into pies for Thanksgiving or Christmas. To this day, decorating the house with skeletons and Jack-O’-Lanterns is still my favorite holiday tradition. The fond memories I share with my family surrounding pumpkins are some of my favorites!
I have always loved the process of making a Jack-O’-Lantern to share with my neighborhood. The first step was to pick the perfect pumpkin! I always like the bright orange ones. I would pick the most extreme sizes, whether super BIG or extremely tiny. Then my brother and I, and occasionally some friends, would gather around the kitchen table lined with newspaper and covered in tools like a big spoon, serrated knives (always to be used with supervision), and permanent markers. We would brainstorm our design ideas together and do a few mockups on paper. The go-to design was typically a silly or spooky face, although some years we’d get creative and write words or draw more complex things. This design was super important! This was going to be on display for the whole neighborhood to see– not to mention any family visitors or folks that lived in more rural areas who would travel to our neighborhood for Trick-or-Treating! After finding the perfect design and gutting the pumpkin, we’d trace our artwork onto the pumpkin in marker and hack away! The more detailed work was always done with a little serrated knife specifically meant for pumpkin carving. Sometimes there were too many people and not enough tools, so we’d get creative with kitchen utensils and craft supplies to make sure our art was perfect. Once it was done, we’d set it out on the porch or in the yard with a tealight in it so we could show off our masterpieces!
The aftermath of pumpkin carving was tedious. To try to avoid wasting the fruit, we’d pick out all the seeds and set them aside to be roasted. The rest would be composted while we rinsed the seeds and tossed them in olive oil and salt. Roasted pumpkin seeds are a savory treat that always came from the fall season! Not all the treats we made from pumpkins were savory though! When we had a surplus of pumpkin from the garden, my mom even baked and puréed the fruit to turn into pumpkin pie! In previous years, we would just buy pumpkin pie filling because it was easy, but making the filling ourselves was fun! We also froze the excess purée (of which there was a lot) to use for future holidays, like Thanksgiving or Christmas!
American fall harvest traditions surrounding the pumpkin have been passed down for centuries, and it is pretty fun to be able to participate in them today! I enjoy the community that surrounds sharing your pumpkin decorations during the season, as well as the family traditions that are shared at the dinner table during fall holidays, like when my family would get together over a massive feast of the unhealthiest possible food, followed always by pumpkin pie for dessert! I love partaking in these pumpkin traditions, and it makes me feel so connected to millions of other people that have shared the same experiences through time!