Pumpkin - Part 1

Gary, my neighbor down the street, runs a little farm stand that he stocks by going out to Lancaster County once a week. He buys fresh produce from local farmers and sells their goods right outside his house. This old-school  farm stand is one of the many things I love about my neighborhood.

After living here for over a year, I finally clued in to the fact that I might be able to place an order with Gary. I was really looking for a cheaper way to score good eggs for my family. I can get local eggs at Maple Acres, but they charge $4.00/dozen which is pretty steep. Gary was happy to oblige - and he found me eggs for $1.75/dozen.

Now that Gary and I have a relationship that goes beyond "Hi" and "Thanks," I have gotten up the nerve to ask him to find some other things like cooking apples, tomatoes, honey and a cooking pumpkin. Yep, I have this idea that I will make my own pumpkin puree. And the pumpkins we buy for jack-o-lanterns aren't especially good for eating, I am told.

 

This is what a cooking pumpkin looks like. I will admit that when I saw this, I considered that Gary was just messing with me. But he doesn't seem the type. And his friend, Nancy, was there and she said that this was in fact a baking pumpkin. Perhaps they were in it together?

Do you like how they wrote my name on it? In case there was a run on crazy looking pumpkins, Gary was looking out for me. Though we have clear rules about drawing on paper only, Kara decided that writing on a pumpkin that was already written on was fair game. I concurred.

By the way, it's huge. Here is Kara holding it for the purpose of perspective. She declared it to be one funny looking punkin'.

Dave's comment:  "How are you going to cook that exactly?" Part 2 with all the info coming soon....