Pumpkin Day
© Alexandra / pixabay.com / 2015 / CC0 1.0
Pumpkin Day is the 29th of September.
Perhaps Pumpkin Day is held in September for those for whom the Pumpkin Pie season would otherwise be too short, to allow them to get an early jump on the season.
But still, it’s a bit early to carve your pumpkin for Hallowe’en. It won’t last, plus it’s still got some good quality growing time during which it should be attached still to its vine. And pie pumpkins still need more time on the vine to sweeten up.
So look instead for a savoury dish that calls for pumpkin or squash in it. And remember, the ones that are grown for their size and and looks, for making into Jack-O-Lanterns, are rarely the best eating ones. A pumpkin only has so much flavour, and the bigger it is, the more spread out and diluted that flavour is.
There’s actually a fair bit of vigorous dissension over when Pumpkin Day should be observed.
Most Internet sources plump for 29 September; though a few go one better and say that 7 October is Ripe Pumpkin Day.
In the real world, the Henry Doubleday Research Association sponsors Pumpkin day on the last Sunday in October at the Ryton Organic Gardens south of Coventry in the West Midlands, England. The Royal Horticultural Society holds one at its Rosemoor Garden in Devon on the third or fourth Sunday in October. Everyone else holds a Pumpkin Day within a few days of Hallowe’en.