photo – Karen Anderson
I’m at my desk this morning enjoying a couple of mini pumpkin muffins and steaming cup of tea because my September Alberta at Noon food column (I’m at the 8 minute mark in the program) is about pumpkins and I presented the recipe for these long time favourite muffins for that broadcast.
September is the prime time to visit Alberta’s agritourism pumpkin patches. If you wait until October when Thanksgiving’s pie and Halloween’s Jack o’ Lantern are pressing culinary and decorative concerns you’ll miss out.
We can have frost in Alberta anytime in September and that’s when the big green pumpkin leaves and vines die, die, die. The pumpkin patch goes from photo ready verdant pastoral eye candy to orange dots on a sea of brown dirt overnight. The farmers go out to the fields pluck up each and every pumpkin and put them in bins at that point. So, if you want to take the little tykes out to pluck their own pumpkin from the patch NOW is the time.
You can find more information about the cornucopia of pumpkin patch opportunities around Alberta here.
The reason I’m talking about pumpkins so far before Thanksgiving and Halloween all started because of a recent tour I led to the five farms of Innisfail Growers. This blog post features the beautiful day I spent touring the five farms of Innisfail Growers and I’ll just say from the outset how grateful I am to my friend Leona Staples for educating me about the brief window for viewing pumpkin patches in their prime. Previous to this August’s visit, I had never even thought about it. Thanks Leona.
Thanks to all of you for dropping by and thanks for being @CBCradio listeners. It’s fun to talk about and savour a bit of the life and activity on our Alberta farms together. Cheers, Karen
I made this last week, & I LOVE it! I’m making an alternate another double batch tonight! Yummmmmmm..
Oh my. That photo is making me hungry! They look delicious.