Sunday, Dec. 21, 2008 - 10:03 p.m.
Thank You Charlie Brown
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In October I was walking along the beach
way off to one side
way behind a bunch of trees
where someone dumped a million leaves
and who knows what else garden waste
I saw something orange
i walked over and saw that
it was a feral pumpkin
that had grown all summer
away at the bottom os some cliff
without benefit of any human help
and produced a lone single orange pumpkin
I brought it home
just because it was free and
it laid in the shoe and canoe closet
all by itself like some big dumb sofa cushion
I didn;t carve it up for halloween
I didn't nothing
I just left it there
last week I looked at it
as just another neglected project
and decided i would take out the seeds
roast them and throw the golden carcass away
It opened up nicely
the guts were full of plumper seeds
and the flesh was bright and sweet and clean
so I decided as a joke to cube a little of it
and throw it in the curry bubbling on the stove
if it was terrible I could always fish it out
an hour later when I ate I was delighted
to discover the curried pumpkin pieces
were exceptionally delicious
and contributed a _lot
to the lightness and texture
of a potato tofu curry
I even fed some to starving friends
who dropped by later
and thy remarked I had really done it this time
Here was an exceptional curry
I even confessed i nabbed a free pumpkin
growing on its own
way down the beach
but they didn;t care
that it was junk wild pumpkin
and the curry was declared awesome
I left the pumpkin shell on the counter
completely ignored and went on with my life
and the next day I cut off some more wild pumpkin
sprinkled it with brown sugar and cinnamon and microwaved it for 15 mins
it was delicious as a dessert
I am eating even more pumpkin junk
now in a soup and its terrific
how did I live without ven trying to eat pumpkins before?
They are so cheap its a joke
they are so easy to work with
one pumkin has already fed me five times, and theres more left- lots more
I might try some more cooked
in a smoothie with ice cream and vanilla
I will definately grow the seeds I didn't eat
out somewhere in spring
and have more wonderful pumpkin feasts
next year and maybe make a ten litre batch
of pumpkin soup make some pumpkin bread
and whip up a batch of pumpkin smoothies maybe somebody will make pumpkin pies
or pumpkin muffins
and then I can invite everybody I know
over to feast on one huge bloody pumpkin
all that precious vitamin D
and its so easy and cheap
is this what the future will be like?
everybody on a pumpkin diet?
well if they are all broke
and unemployed
like it looks like they might be
maybe they will have to join
the pumpkin liberation army
and to think how many
perfectly good pumpkins
I saw put out in the garbage
the day after halloween
dozens of tossed away pumpkins
well I beat everybody to the future
and how do I know?
I am the only one here
who knows the great pumpkin
well enough to have him
over for dinner every night l week
