Pumpkins

This seems to be the season for pumpkins here. Pumpkin is usually available, but I haven't bothered to buy one to eat. This past week, however, people have given me two. Don't think huge Halloween Jack-O-Lantern-type pumpkins. Think small, even oblong green pumpkins. Think about pumpkins that actually taste good.

Bry'Chell loves pumpkin. When I'm gone teaching, she will actually steam a piece of pumpkin in the microwave to eat for dinner. That's about the only vegetable she goes out of her way to eat.

We had an early dinner this evening. One of Bry'Chell's classmates, Sylvia, was over. I asked her if she wanted to stay for supper. It wasn't fancy, just rice and beans and pumpkin. Sylvia stayed for the meal. I had to cut the two pieces of pumpkin into four pieces. They were generous-sized pieces before, so they were still more than adequate cut in half. Of course, that left one extra piece which Bry'Chell scored at the first opportune moment.

Bry'Chell and I were talking about how much better the pumpkin tastes here than at home. Sylvia observed that maybe the soil in Uganda is better. Since most kids take agriculture, not to mention actually work on the family plot, they have some clue about how food grows.

Bry'Chell and I looked at each other. How do you explain, that no, our soil is fine, our country grows pumpkin mostly to observe an annual ritual where we carve up what could be perfectly good food and turn them into ghoulish, candle-lit apparitions for the night?

How do you explain Halloween? Here Halloween is the eve before All Saints Day. Nothing more.

What do you say to help someone understand that a whole industry is built around carving up pumpkins and giving out candy? What's more, the pumpkins aren't even that good to eat. Actually, they're OK, I may be the only person on the south side of Chicago who actually peels and cooks my Jack-O-Lantern after Halloween is over. I put the puree in the freezer and we eat it all year. While we like it, Ugandan pumpkin is way better--sweeter and more flavorful.

Honestly, which society appears more advanced--the one who grows healthy food to eat or the one that grows large gourds for the purpose of carving them with scary faces once a year?

Go figure.