Well, here we are! October 31st: Halloween!

To bid farewell to October and herald in November, I thought I’d pay short homage to that ubiquitous winter squash that shows up absolutely everywhere this time of year:

The Pumpkin.

Here in the States, the pumpkin is often (but not always) associated with sweet things – like pastries and dessert (the pumpkin pie, the pumpkin roll, the pumpkin cake, the pumpkin muffin, the pumpkin scone, the pumpkin mousse, the pumpkin brownie (!)…) or sweet drinks (the unfathomable pumpkin spice latte or the more unfathomable pumpkin spice milkshake or the still more unfathomable pumpkin spice cocoa) or cloyingly sweet smelling candles and the like.

Rarely do we appreciate it as a savory and healthy addition to a good meal in its more natural state as squash.

But sometimes we do!

Pumpkins, whether you like them or not as a food item, are iconic here in the autumn. But they aren’t just regulated to Halloween jack-o-lanterns (which was my first childhood exposure to pumpkins). They’re a part of autumn decor all the way up to Thanksgiving at the end of November, at which time they magically disappear in one fell swoop and are replaced by Christmas trees and lights and snowflakes and Santa Clause and creepy elves and peppermint flavored everything.

More and more, the transition between pumpkin and peppermint is happening earlier and earlier – almost to the point that, by the time the kids are sorting their Halloween candy and coercing a Tootsie-Roll-for-Anything-Else Trade Agreement, the jack-o-lantern is replaced by a ho-ho-hoing Santa on the front porch.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! There’s still time to stitch a pumpkin or two!