Pumpkins, spiced treats and tricks!
The Untamed Gardener
Aisling Blackburn
The time of year is Samhain, and it still hasn’t gotten old. The evening before the Feast of All Saints – The Hallowed ones. For some reason masked children still roam the roads, chanting outside people’s front doors looking for treats and pumpkin lanterns sit alongside ghastly plastic severed limbs outside houses. Perfectly ordinary homes are now ‘haunted’, by ghouls and wicked witches and skeletons, who stand guard in front of the entrance daring anyone to cross the threshold. For those brave enough to do so, a variety of vittles await, including hard cash!
I find the merging of cultures and traditions a tedious, confusing mishmash of past, present and borrowed bits myself, which may make me the Halloween version of a scrooge, bah humbug!
In my day…. the chant was “apples or nuts, cigarettes or buts”, while no one ever gave us the latter, and certainly, we didn’t get any sweets. It’s not that people were mean, but there wasn’t that much cash floating around and sweets were an extravagance. The best bit was the dressing up and the excitement of knocking on the doors of strangers. We were happy enough with the spoils (literally apples and nuts) but not really that interested, only in terms of volume. “How much did you get?” and “that house gives you loads”. Later, I watched with fascination, as my dad cracked open alien looking Brazil nuts to reveal the white flesh within.
Apparently, we can take full credit for starting the tradition. Back in the day, when the earth was flat, there was a belief in a veil that separated the underworld from our everyday life above. That veil became thin around this time of year and a plethora of good and bad spirits escaped from the underworld via various portals (such as the ‘Cave of Cats’ in Roscommon) to wreak havoc and perhaps kidnap mortals to their realm. Other lost souls or relatives might, (being of a more benign nature), be invited to eat with their families and a place would be set for them, this was known as a – “dumb supper”. Anyone wandering around outside was fair game to the marauders and so it was essential to wear an ugly disguise such as sacking with slits for the eyes. Very effective indeed.
Back to pumpkins. How did they get involved? And what about bats? Calm down, bats live in caves. Back in the day, turnips were carved out and made into lanterns - these were lit from a central communal bonfire that served as protection against evil forces and were placed on the windowsills of houses on the night of the 31st. Irish immigration brought this tradition to America, when pumpkins became employed similarly and, eventually in Ireland, as continental food and many new vegetables were grown.
The term squash covers both summer and winter vegetables, from courgettes and marrows to a variety of multicoloured edible gourds. They are very easy to grow, and most are sown after the first frosts, usually indoors. The main thing is that they are then transplanted into fertile ground. Nothing fancy, it could be a simple pile of manure, then pockets (or a layer) of soil is topped off with straw or grass clippings, into which young plants are placed (sometimes called lasagna beds) as we did in Drumlane community garden, Milltown, in 2007 using one of the quadrants, because people weren’t mad about doing that much digging!
Pumpkins and all members of the Cucurbitaceae family have unisex flowers – so flowers of the male and female type are found on the same plant. It’s easy to tell the female flowers apart, because of the little fruit by which the flower is attached to the stem. These flowers are edible too and are often stuffed and cooked. Pollination is achieved by bees naturally; but in the case of indoor planting, we often hand pollinate; breaking off a male flower and shaking the pollen onto the ‘lady-flowers’. If a flower isn’t pollinated then the developing fruit just drops off, sadly.
Growing the largest pumpkin can be quite competitive, some specimens have attained gigantic proportions, at heights even taller than a person. The students of Breifne College grew pumpkins some years ago, using mushroom compost in place of manure - mentioned above, which grew to several kilo. Pumpkins need a sheltered warm spot so bees can land on them. There are several varieties and colours, I like ‘Crown Prince, Acorn and Red Curi or Hubbard squash.
Try saving the seed for re-sowing -if you know it grew where no cross pollination occurred. Otherwise, you can expect a surprise.
Speaking of which, head to Erica’s fairy forest in Cootehill for a nice free seasonal experience with the kids.