Saturday, November 04, 2006
Halloween
Halloween is a huge affair over here. The Canadians spend heaps of time planning the event starting with decorating their houses and businesses then collecting pumpkins from various pumpkin farms about the district. You can get pumpkins from just about anywhere, and they are all the yellow ones you see in the movies. They sell them in supermarkets, garden centres, roadside stalls, fuel stops, off the back of a truck, markets along the side of the road, everywhere there are pumpkins. Pumpkins, Pumpkins Pumpkins. Pumpkin paradise! We ran across a pumpkin patch when the olds were visiting but waited until Alex was with us to do the pumpkin foraging. The family deal is to visit one of these farms and hand pick your pumpkin(s) from the field they are growing in. The less adventurous can select from the mountains of pumpkins stacked or lined up beside the pumpkin shed. They also had a variety of other pumpkins (besides the yellow Halloween variety), squash and gourds for sale. They even had a 'Queensland Blue' all the way form Australia but obviously grown in the short Canadian season as it was a fraction of the size of the blues in Aus.
Once having selected our pumpkins (we chose three different sized beauties) they were placed on display, uncarved on the front steps for all to see and recognise that our house was available for trick or treating on 'the night'. Finally the day to carve the pumpkin (they then become 'Jack-O-Lanterns') arrived so off we toddled to Marj & Bills for some expert guided tuition by the Pumpkin Carving King of Canada, Bill, otherwise known as Bill the wise, or Bill the majestic or Bill who knows all about pumpkins. Bill of course had a number of examples already laid out for us to admire and ogle over, and two or three raw specimens for demonstration. So th
e carving began in earnest, firstly removing the top in a very scientific and precise manner, with a little bit of artistic flair thrown in, then the fun job of removing by any means possible, the mushy, slimy innards of the pumpkin. Bill of course had a variety of implements on board at our disposal but nothing could beat a good ol dig with the hands. Our only setback was the fact that the pumpkins had been left on the 
front porch since purchase, which was a good for pumpkin preservation as the daily outside temp was at fridge temperature or below, but it was bloody cold digging into icy pumpkin mush. Finally with a bit of planning and guidance from Bill the wise we carved our treasures and toasted to a successful carve before taking the jacks home. They stayed outside on the porch except for the day I took mine into work and the day before Halloween which is devil's night and you may find your Jack smashed all over the road.Halloween night turned out to be great fun with all the neighbourhood kiddies knocking on the door saying 'trick or treat'. The littlies started off first accompanied by mums and dads then the teens came through in small groups all exceptionally well behaved and having a wonderful time. They particularly enjoyed knocking on the Aussies door to listen to our accents. Alex also joined in on the fun after answering the door a few times and went off with a friend, dressed as a blue M&M, and came back with her own bag of treats. And, as magically as the day the Halloween paraphenalia appeared, they all disappeared to be replaced by Christmas stuff.
# posted by Dibbo @ 2:10 pm 
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That's so cool!! I want to be in America for Halloween one time! Where's the pic of Alex as a blue M&M?
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