All about pumpkins
Halloween is just a few days away, and we've been spending lots of time with pumpkins getting Madchen ready for the big holiday. Of course, American pumpkins can't compare with the lovely Swiss Kürbisse... all the varieties, the Kürbis Markt, the Kürbis Fest, the Kürbis Suppe... I miss all of it so much.
As opposed to Switzerland, where there seemed to be literally hundreds of varieties of pumpkins, I've yet to see much more than the average Jack-O-Lantern variety around here. Thankfully, I did get a nice cooking pumpkin last week in our final produce delivery of the season from a local farm (we've been getting produce delivered weekly since June), and I'm hoping to try out my favorite Swiss Kürbissuppe recipe that I used in Basel.
A few weeks ago, Madchen and I traveled with some friends "outside the Beltway" to visit a pumpkin patch. It was really more like a giant playground for toddlers as opposed to a pumpkin patch, but that was just fine for our two-year olds. It was sunny and it the 80s and felt more like 4th of July than Halloween.
There was a merry-go-round...
...and a big cat tunnel...
...and a choo-choo train...
...and even a few pumpkins!
Yesterday, we went a bit more local to pick out our carving pumpkins. The church that houses Madchen's school sells pumpkins (all proceeds to charity) for a few weeks in October, and the sight of all these pumpkins in their front yard is really beautiful. We quickly learned that we needed to call it the "pumpkin store", as opposed to the "pumpkin patch". There was not a playground here... no merry-go-round or cat tunnel or choo-choo trains... just pumpkins! We would have been in big trouble with Madchen had we not met her expectations of visiting the real pumpkin patch again.
Madchen found a few that were just her size...
...and we took advantage of having a photographer with us (Grandpa Tom) to take a family photo with the pumpkins.
Stay tuned for the next posting about pumpkins, to be titled: "How to use red pepper flakes and hairspray to stop the squirrels from eating your pumpkins".
As opposed to Switzerland, where there seemed to be literally hundreds of varieties of pumpkins, I've yet to see much more than the average Jack-O-Lantern variety around here. Thankfully, I did get a nice cooking pumpkin last week in our final produce delivery of the season from a local farm (we've been getting produce delivered weekly since June), and I'm hoping to try out my favorite Swiss Kürbissuppe recipe that I used in Basel.
A few weeks ago, Madchen and I traveled with some friends "outside the Beltway" to visit a pumpkin patch. It was really more like a giant playground for toddlers as opposed to a pumpkin patch, but that was just fine for our two-year olds. It was sunny and it the 80s and felt more like 4th of July than Halloween.
There was a merry-go-round...
...and a big cat tunnel...
...and a choo-choo train...
...and even a few pumpkins!
Yesterday, we went a bit more local to pick out our carving pumpkins. The church that houses Madchen's school sells pumpkins (all proceeds to charity) for a few weeks in October, and the sight of all these pumpkins in their front yard is really beautiful. We quickly learned that we needed to call it the "pumpkin store", as opposed to the "pumpkin patch". There was not a playground here... no merry-go-round or cat tunnel or choo-choo trains... just pumpkins! We would have been in big trouble with Madchen had we not met her expectations of visiting the real pumpkin patch again.
Madchen found a few that were just her size...
...and we took advantage of having a photographer with us (Grandpa Tom) to take a family photo with the pumpkins.
Stay tuned for the next posting about pumpkins, to be titled: "How to use red pepper flakes and hairspray to stop the squirrels from eating your pumpkins".
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