Happy little pumpkins

I posted this photo (below) of my latest (ie, second-ever) effort at pumpkin-carving on Facebook last night, and my wonderful niece Lisa, who's been raising her family with her husband Ken in Calgary, Canada these last two and a half decades, made the comment that even though she's been living all that time in Canada, where they celebrate Halloween with gusto, she's still not into it. Calls herself the Halloween Grinch. If you knew what a sweet person Lisa is, the last word to ever describe her would be 'Grinch'. The only "G" word she answers to now is "granny", because she is one, but Grinch she ain't.

That's the thing about Halloween in Australia. The older generations not only are not into it, many of them are very actively "bah humbug" about it. It wasn't part of their childhood, so they often say the current batch of little Aussie kids (most of whom love celebrating Halloween) can bugger off. This attitude usually comes parcelled up with a dose of anti-Americanism, to give it a bit of ideological or political respectability (even though Halloween's traditions originated in Ireland and parts of Scotland). 

After Pammy and I spent all of October 2011 in the USA, we changed our minds about Halloween. We loved the way people everywhere we went treated it as a whole month-long harvest festival. Houses were decorated weeks in advance of the 31st, either with the traditional 'harvest' themes of haybales, pumpkins and corn cobs; or the 'spooky' themes of ghosts, skeletons, witches etc. And I guess the fact that we celebrated our first real Halloween in Times Square, New York was the perfect way to wrap our change in attitude to Halloween with fond memories that are still happy and vivid to this day.

However, apart from getting to know and appreciate Halloween for what it really is, I have another reason to carve pumpkins and buy Chupachups to give away to the kids who come knocking at our door tonight. 

It's simply that I feel sorry for our kids, in general, in how 'un-free' they are these days. My childhood might have lacked Halloween but I had so much freedom to wander, to explore the local bushland and to live out my childhood fantasies of cowboys and indians and anything else that seemed like dangerous fun that was on TV back then. By comparison, kids are on a tight leash because the consensus is that this is a more dangerous world these days. Sad but true, but I do think urban kids in particular are missing out on the freedoms I knew, and that's why I sometimes feel sorry for the little ones.

So I see Halloween as a rare chance for kids to wander around their neighbourhood with their parents (if they're little) in the evening, or at night by themselves (if they're a bit older). In many cases it's the closest thing to a community event for kids that happens in ordinary suburban streets. It gives the littlies a chance to do something very different for one night a year. And just because this new 'tradition' wasn't part of my childhood isn't reason enough for me to say "bah humbug go away". I'd rather say "welcome, Happy Halloween kids, have a great night." 

Finally, to finish, my second-ever attempt at baked pumpkin seeds.
This year, as I did last year, I saved the mass of pumpkin seeds
which is mostly what you find inside a hollow 'Jack O Lantern'.
pumpkin. Then I washed them to get the stringy flesh off, and
dried them for an hour or so on paper towels. Meanwhile I turned
on the oven to 140°C (285°F) to preheat fully.

Then I put the seeds in a bowl, sprayed them with olive oil
and sprinkled on a spice mix. Last year I simply used garlic
salt and the results were a bit bland. This year I used totally
non-traditional Moroccan seasoning mix, and for all these seeds
only a teaspoon or so is necessary. Not too much. I spread them
out on a sheet of baking paper in a single layer, then baked
them at 140°C for 25 minutes. This year's batch was much
nicer, crunchy and more-ish to eat. So it isn't just the kids who
get to have fun around Halloween time.

Brain surgery made easy, for Halloween

If you are wondering "what on Earth is Jamie on about now?" then you haven't read my previous blog posting, Halloween Conversion, which tells the story of why Pammy and I are now celebrating Halloween in our own little way. It has a lot to do with happy memories of an incredible journey together for us of course, but we now 'get' Halloween, having seen it done so wonderfully well in the US last year.

Nevertheless, the story picks up at Woolies supermarket, where they're selling genuine Jack-o-Lantern easy-carve pumpkins this year, and this candidate for brain surgery cost me just $8.

The perfect carving pumpkin, thinnish skinned,
semi-hollow inside, shaped like a head,
the famous Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin. 

Thanks to You Tube, I discovered that a fine saw is better than
a sharp knife for carving and I had one such saw. This in fact
is a tragic story on its own. I saw this saw on a bargain table
at a hardware store and thought "that might come in handy
one day" and it has – 10 years later! From now on, every time
I see something that "might come in handy one day" I am
going to remember my pumpkin-carving saw which really did
make the whole thing very easy. The boning knife was good
at marking a starting cut in the pumpkin, so it's needed.

Like brain surgery, pumpkin carving can get messy, so I
laid out the Saturday Business Section of the Herald – finally
I have found a use for the Business pages!

After the boning knife makes a small cut, in goes the saw,
to make a big enough lid for my hand to fit into the pumpkin,
for scooping out all the seeds, innards and brains.

Here's a handy tip: cut the lid with the saw blade at an angle, not
straight up and down, so there's no risk of the lid falling into
the middle of the pumpkin itself.

Inside the Jack-O-Lantern is a pitiful sight, mostly seeds and
stringy fibres and nothing much else. A bit icky, in fact.

This is what I call the 'batterie de scoop', for scooping out
the seeds and fibres. As it turned out I used my hands a lot
but the big spoon and the teaspoon did help to get the job done.

This is the total contents of the inside of
Jack's head. Mostly seeds (which I later washed,
dried then sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled
with garlic salt, and roasted at 140°C for 25 
minutes as a pre-dinner snack. OK, not great).

Total time to complete the cleaning of the innards was about
20 minutes to half an hour.

Wiping out with paper towels probably helps.

Put the lid back on and brain surgery part 1 is complete,
just like real brain surgery.

We then left the pumpkin and lid to dry until the carving,
which we did with our friends Paul and Jolanda and their
gorgeous little five-year-old daughter, Elina, who came
around to have dinner at our place last night.

I am especially thrilled with the lid, it actually fits!

To carve the face, first Pammy used a biro
to draw the eyes, nose and gap-toothed smile.

Then it was back to the "might come in handy one day" saw
to carefully cut out the shapes. After cutting we pushed each
shape from the inside, so it popped out.

The saw made this job very easy, but at the end
there were still lots of stringy dags left over.

It took as long to finally tidy up the dags as it took to carve
the eyes, nose and smile. Pammy did a superb job, such neat work!

And then, as it grew dark, we popped a tealight candle into
Jack's head and he began to glow beautifully. Little Elina
loved seeing it all happen, and I can imagine that as she
grows up Halloween will be something she has celebrated
every year of her life, and for me that's a happy thought.

Halloween conversion

Last week's shopping list had an unusual item on it: "a few whole pumpkins, in different colours". Wasn't me, but I could figure what Pammy was up to. She's been bitten by the Halloween bug, following our driving holiday across America this time last year.

Before that we were two happy little Halloween grinches. In previous years, when kids came to our door trick or treating, we'd just say "sorry kids, we're not into Halloween, that's an American thing." Poor little things, they probably got more rejections than lollies, but that's the thing about Halloween here. It's not an Australian tradition... but it is catching on with the current generation of kids, including these two big old kids here at Amateur Land.

And so this is what Pammy did by our front
door. A few pumpkins laid on a bed of sugar
cane mulch, nasturtiums in a tin vase filled
with water – instant Halloween harvest scene! 

Now, the problem is of course that it is anything but harvest time here in Australia. We're Down Under, so it's spring and planting time. But if we as a nation can make a Christmas tradition of fake pine trees, fake snow etc I don't think a few pumpkins by the door is too outrageous a stretch of the imagination. The thing is, we two former Halloween grinches were utterly charmed by the way the good citizens of the USA turned Halloween into a month-long festival of home decorating, pumpkin carving, ghoul exhumations, ghost stories and general good-natured fun. Here's what I mean...

Typical harvest scene on the front steps of a
nice old house in Galveston, Texas.

In New York City, the ghouls get married,
the pumpkins are carved, all ready to party.

A town square in sleepy Greensboro, Georgia had one of these
pumpkin and haybale settings on all four corners of the square. 

A creepy old witch greets visitors to this house
in Charleston, South Carolina.

And in New Orleans, Louisiana the pumpkin
carvers were outnumbered by the ghosts and
ghouls, but these guys are still laughing.

Now, all of Pammy's pumpkin arranging by our front door would have been a perfectly good little 'We like Halloween now' gesture from us, but two days ago, at our local Woolworths supermarket, I spied a bin full of genuine Jack O Lantern pumpkins for sale, and this set Pammy and I on a whole new adventure, which will be detailed in my usual detailed detailing in the next blog posting to follow.

This was one of the smaller ones there, and
it cost about $8. To find out what happened
next, I'll be back real soon!

New York Stories (5) – spooky!

The good news for the little tackers going out Trick or Treating for Halloween tonight in New York is that in many areas the snow will have melted and they won't all be slipping over, spilling their stashes of candy everywhere. Wouldn't that be terrible! I'm not sure whether we'll get a knock at the door up here on the 12th floor in our Manhattan Hotel, but you never know your bad luck, do you?

As we've driven across the country and walked around the streets of many towns, the Halloween decorations on houses and shops have been such a delightful thing to see. Some involve elaborate ghoulish figures, others are as simple and charming as a set of hand-cut pumpkins on the front steps. And so here's a few photos of the Halloween decorations we have seen all across the country, starting here with some we spotted in New York City in yesterday's walkies.

"I now pronounce you ghoul and wife" a macabre wedding ceremony on the steps of a Greenwich Village house.

I've been told these pumpkins are a special type grown each year for Halloween. They're supposedly much easier to hollow out and carve but aren't that good for eating (can my American gardener/readers confirm this?). We've seen them for sale in parking lots and local parks in some towns, with huge areas turned into a sea of orange as thousands of pumpkins are arrayed for customers to choose a few to take home.

This graveside awakening is enough to give you nightmares. Love their work (again in New York City).

Charleston, South Carolina, did itself proud with its Halloween decorations. We love these balcony folk.

This Charleston witch looks fab at the moment, but where do they keep her the rest of the year? Maybe it's in a cupboard to give burglars and snoops a fright?

Same deal with this Charleston front garden guy who greets passers-by with a cheery "boo!". Surely he lives in the attic in the off-season. Must terrify the electricians doing repairs up there...

Passing through many country towns we spotted simple harvest displays of haybales and pumpkins that are a simultaneous feature of this October Harvest/Halloween season. This one was in the town square of Swainsboro, Georgia. There were several of these in the square, including one with a scarecrow. Hundreds and hundreds of shops everywhere had mini displays of haybales/pumpkins/scarecrows in their front windows, even teeny little plastic ones on the store counter as well. The whole nation is into it!

If you think you've seen this photo of a front step harvest display before, you have. It's from Galveston, Texas.

Hand-carving your own pumpkins is a real skill. You can buy videos on how to do it, there are demos on TV on how to do it, and as these pumpkins in New Orleans show, when well done it's great folk art. At night, with candles inside the pumpkins, the effect is superb.

New Orleans cheerfully embraces graveside humour all year-round, and so Halloween just brings out the best in them. Virtually every balcony had something ghoulish hanging from it.

At any other time of year this front door in the Garden District of New Orleans would be a worry. Right now, it's just great.

Around the corner from that spooky front door, in the side garden, ghosts fluttered from the trees.

And in the French Quarter, the staff are here to help you find the graveyard of your choice.

The major Halloween Street Parade tonight in New York City is between 6th and 16th Streets in Greenwich Village, and we're not sure if we'll be there or not to join the crush, but it's no problem if we aren't there, as they televise it live on local TV, much as they do with the Mardi Gras Parade back in Sydney each year. Meanwhile, we await a knock at the door this evening, and hope it is merely a sugar-loving child dressed as a demon or witch, and not the real thing.