Living in Houston, I had no idea where pumpkins grow in the U.S., but I have learned that it's one of the most important U.S. crops where about 1.5 billion pounds are harvested each year. I know even less about "foreign" pumpkins. They originated in the New World (like potatoes, tomatoes and corn) and were taken back to Europe by the Spaniards. I just saw them in rustic displays at the grocery store, but now, living in the countryside, I guess it makes sense that I would see them growing in a field.
This is a small pumpkin patch in a field above the village.
Another thing I didn't know is that southeastern Austria (and a few neighboring areas) is the only place that makes pumpkin seed oil (kurbiskernol). The International Oil Pumpkin Conference is also held in this area. The oil is made from a specific mutant - Styrian oilseed pumpkin - with tender, non-woody, seed hulls. I'm not sure what pumpkin seed oil is used for, but then I'm woefully deficient in that kind of knowledge.
Bob by the Kurbisfest sign (bucna festa is Croatian).
The green ones are the ones that contain the pumpkin seed oil.
The orange one looked familiar with the funny face drawn on it.
Villagers at the festival
Some of our company friends
More of the pumpkins used to decorate the festival area
Villager Victoria volunteered to paint the children's faces.
Christine also did face-painting.
Dudo and Marija's four-year-old daughter, Mara, loved having her face painted.
She had one cheek done ...
... and then the other.
Some of the pumpkins look like giant squashes.
We had to leave for awhile and while we were gone, they had some contests. That big tub just in the picture was used for a volume displacement contest, and they also had a weight contest. The winner weighed something over 50 kilos (approx. 110 pounds).
These are decorative but clearly no size winner.
Village teens were available to serve wine, beer and schnapps, always available at any event in Austria.
More villagers enjoying the festival
Most of these pumpkins looked more familiar to me.
Company friend Miliana
Miliana and Bora's son, Milos
Barbara and her son, Phillip
Marija holding Chombe and Josipa's daughter, Zara
Mara and Zara
Kids everywhere love to jump.
Chombe holding daughter, Zara
She's only five months old, but she was moving her legs and trying to jump, too.
This is a girl in a hurry.
In the U.S. pumpkins are associated with pie for Thanksgiving but also as jack-o'lanterns at Halloween. I wondered how that tradition began and learned that it came from an Irish myth about a man known as "Stingy Jack." He invited the devil to have a drink but didn't want to pay (I think I know this guy). He convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin to pay for the drinks, then Jack kept it in his pocket next to a silver cross so the devil couldn't escape.
After more tricks like this, Jack eventually died, but of course God wouldn't allow such an unsavory cheapskate into heaven. And then the devil wouldn't let him into hell (don't get that one), sending Jack off into the darkness with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a hollowed turnip, and the Irish referred to his ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," later just "Jack O'Lantern."
So people began to carve scary faces into turnips, potatoes and beets and set them on windowsills or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. When immigrants brought the tradition to the U.S., they discovered that pumpkins made perfect jack o'lanterns. I figure they used pumpkins because they were harvested right around Halloween in the U.S.
Unlike Linus, I won't be sitting in that little pumpkin patch overlooking Klingenbach on Halloween night. He'll have to wait for the Great Pumpkin by himself!
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