Canadian Thanksgiving

Cinderella heritage pumpkin.

There are many garden delights to be thankful for this harvest season. Among them are the pretty, colourful squash known as Pumpkin. My friend Pamela grew this one and although she gave me seeds to grow some this year, I was late in planting mine and they are still golden yellow, not reddish-orange like this beauty.

I hated to cut into this pumpkin, but I remembered how delicious last year’s pie tasted that came from the parent of this pumpkin (or would that be the aunt, or sister???)

This pumpkin variety is tasty for cooking and has thick flesh.

I had to get very serious about cutting into the pumpkin and that meant a machete and hammer! Can you believe how thick the walls are?

After I scooped out the seeds I piled it all into a roasting pan. I added about 3/4 cup of water and covered it loosely with foil. Into the oven at 350 it went and I roasted it until I could easily pierce it with a sharp knife. When it came out of the oven, I let it rest for 1/2 an hour so the excess water could drain away. After that I cut off the outside skin and then pureed the flesh.

Even the sale price is about 10 times the cost of making it from scratch.

I filled the roasting pan twice, so it took some time to cook the entire pumpkin. When finished, I added the sugar and spices to  the equivilant of 20 whole pie portions and and then froze the portions in our upright freezer. When it’s time to bake them, I’ll add eggs and evaporated milk to complete the filling.

I still had containers of plain puree (for winter soup) left over as well as enough pumpkin to bake 3 pies for Thanksgiving weekend.

Ready for roasting in the oven.

I took the leftover pumpkin seeds to “the girls” aka Pamela’s wonderful, happy chickens. It was the end of the day and they had feasted on slugs and worms and organic barley grown just for them, so they didn’t stampede like they sometimes do. I love the cooing sounds they make in this little video.

Part of the point in getting pumpkin ready and baking pie in the first place was to share it with our friends at a Thanksgiving potluck.

First though, Larry and I had to take a walk down Kniffen’s Hollow to take in the beautiful fall colours that cover the Bear River hills right now.

Giving thanks to Bear River.

The air was cool, but we never get tired of this ever-changing scenery.

Kniffen's creek empties into Bear River.

We walked back up through the woods, past the creek that moved fast with the rains we’ve had off and on this past week.

The leaves are falling and the sight is so magical, that it’s like seeing it all for the first time again.

Kniffen's creek.

We climbed back up the hill to our friends’ house. Inside the guests were arriving, the fire was crackling, the house smelled of turkey and squash and stuffing and vegetables and salad…………..and homegrown, homemade pumpkin pie.

Turkey and all the trimmings on the way.