Autumn Heirlooms

I had told my husband that I was not going to put up fall decorations until the official first day of fall, September 22. I don't want to say good bye to summer. What about beach trips? Sunny afternoons? Fresh summer fruit? Ahhh. All good things must come to an end.

But, don't other good things have a beginning? Yes they do.

I couldn't resist stopping off at our local nursery today when I noticed their pumpkins were out. While they had all the wonderful varieties that I usually chose as a child (perfectly orange, perfectly mid-sized, and perfectly round), my eyes were drawn to a carnival of fall colors.

Enter: Heirloom Pumpkins.

Why have I never noticed them before!?!? Their shades of green, grey, coral, and orange! Stripes, veins, curves and bumps! Lovely imperfection, come to me!!

Since we bought our first house this past June, I have been noticing a lot of things that I never used to notice. Like how quickly the bathroom floor gets dirty, and that you need to be careful when going up they stairs carrying heavy items---you might dent the wall, and you just had it painted and what if the color match you put over the spackle doesn't match!? As a kid I had the attitude of "Hey, who cares if my roller skates scratch the brand new floors...mom will take care of it just like she takes care of everything!" Now, my floors are so clean you could lick them---but I digress.

I was marveling over the wonderful discovery of new (to me) pumpkins as pumpkins are one of my favorite things about fall. I found one that caught my fancy. A lovely bright one in a hue which summoned the deepest orange hue of a sunset. It had the perfect curves, a few dents, some intriguing veins. She was the perfect one to put in our front yard. She would sit in that awkward landscaping void between the evergreen shrub and the Rhododendron. She was huge! She was...to heavy to lift. Now I have been going to a body pump class for almost a year now, so if she is to heavy to lift, at 69 cents a pound...I though her too pricey for me. I guess I could have asked the farm stand people how much they thought that orange, veiny, lumpy, bright, beautiful pumpkin over there cost. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I was getting hungry so I got in my car and drove home with a mum on my passenger seat where that pumpkin should have been.

Now lest you think I am going on and on like a nut without a reason, I have posted photos of what I learned about these pumpkin varietiesso you too can know the names of all these fun pumpkins. Now when I go back to that farm stand I'll know to ask "How much do you think that Rouge vif d'Etempes over there costs". Unfortunately I am reeeeally going to need to work on my french before I try that one out.

If you'd like to find out the uses (besides decorating, you know cooking, backing and such) check out this beautiful and informative slide show at the daily green.