pumpkin, wonderful pumpkin!

gourds and ghosts

In last week’s mashup, I excavated a slew of clippings from “Color of the Country,” my grandmother’s newspaper column from the early 1960s. Originally published as a novel by the same name, her weekly essays about life at the Pennsylvania farm where my father grew up often involved food. And naturally, recipes.

Here's a 100-word GhostPost from my grandmother, Barbara Webster, along with a bonus printable recipe for pumpkin cornbread. Happy Thanksgiving!

At Thanksgiving our garden pumpkin goes into cornbread, and this pairing is another family favorite. There is a homespun tang to it, and as corn and pumpkin were exchange items between the Indians and the early settlers in this country, I like to think the recipe originated with my New England ancestors. Corn and pumpkin definitely have an affinity for each other, gastronomically speaking, and once you find out how pumpkin enhances the rich nuttiness of corn, and corn, the sweet muskiness of pumpkin, you will wonder that this wedding of tastes, discovered long ago, has been allowed to lapse.