I feel stretched between seasons. Just a few weeks ago I could pop raspberries and tomatoes into my mouth as I walked out the door. But today it is 25 degrees with large white flakes swirling outside my window. The garden exists mostly in my memory. Mostly. Because there are seeds and dried herbs on my kitchen table waiting to be labeled. And there is a pumpkin baking in the oven as I write, filling the house with a sweet cozy smell. The pumpkin is my connection and bridge to summer.
Easiest Preservation Technique
Pumpkins are a kind of winter squash (1). If it is round and orangish, we call it a pumpkin, but there is no specific botanical classification for pumpkins. And what I love about pumpkins and all winter squash is that you can simply move them indoors to store for the winter. They do need to sit for a while outside off the vine, but after that, it is the easiest of preservation techniques. Find a cool place in the house and they will be happy for many months. Nothing else is required of you, the gardener. I have six more pumpkins sitting on my office floor. Each time I walk into my office I am reminded of, and connected to garden happiness.
Connection as Mindfulness Focus Word
The essence of pumpkins seems to be connection. In summer, the unruly pumpkin vines take over a large portion of the yard, weaving and connecting themselves to anything in their path. This summer they wound themselves into the apple tree and two pumpkins hung in midair among the apples. And now with snow falling, pumpkins are connecting me to summer and the garden.
One of my favorite children’s books is Too Many Pumpkins in which the protagonist, Rebecca Estelle, thinks she hates pumpkins. When some stray seeds end up in her yard, she is over-run with pumpkins. At first she is upset, but ultimately the pumpkins connect her to her community in a joyous way.
The focus word this week is connection. What in our lives acts as a bridge between seasons of our lives? What connects us to our “happy places”? And what connects us to others? Paying attention to what connects us means we can choose to nurture those connections.
For more information on mindfulness focus words click here.
More Pumpkin Information
My Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream Recipe
(1) According to the Missouri Botanical Gardens “Pumpkins, squash and gourds are members of the enormously diverse Cucurbitaceae family, which contains more than 100 genera and over 700 species. They have been providing humankind with food and utilitarian objects since before recorded history. Various members of the genus Cucurbita are known as squash or gourds”
