By Elizabeth Lowe
Staff Writer
An autumn tradition. The pumpkin fields are full, and it’s Jack o’ lantern prime time.
Keri Dockery, of Cook’s Farm Dairy in Brandon Township, uses a discount-store pattern kit to create a face for her pumpkins.
She chooses a medium-sized round orange fruit from those displayed atop bales at the farm’s open-air pumpkin market.
Cook’s Farm planted 25 acres of the autumn crop. With a season that proved more bountiful than other farms, Cook’s produced nearly 30,000 pumpkins this year.
It makes for a good selection.
“I always like to find one with a good stem,” says Dockery.
Cutting about two inches back from the stem, she plucks off the lid and scoops out the seeds and fibrous pulp.
Dockery, 21, doesn’t need to trace her pattern on the pumpkin. She eyes the illustration, then decides to go freestyle.
With a nifty miniature sawblade secure in Dockery’s deft hand, Jack’s facial features quickly take shape.
Within minutes she’s reaching inside the pumpkin shell, popping out the Jack o’ lantern’s nose, wiping off his face, and brushing pumpkin pieces from her shirt.
Jack’s ready to glow.
Giving pumpkins fearsome or startling features is a tradition that pre-dates American civilization.
According to the History Channel site, the practice began with an Irish myth about an unsavory character named “Stingy Jack”.
Stingy Jack made the mistake of playing tricks on the devil, not allowing him to claim his soul.
Upon Jack’s death, he wasn’t allowed into heaven. Since his dealing with the devil prevented him from claiming Jack’s soul, Stingy Jack’s spirit was turned out into the night with only a burning coal to light his way.
When Jack allegedly began carrying the coal in a carved-out turnip, the tale of “Jack of the Lantern” soon was shortened to what is still known as a Jack o’ lantern.
The people of Ireland, Scotland, and England began carving grotesque faces into vegetables such as turnips, potatoes, or large beets to scare away wandering evil spirits like that of Stingy Jack. When the tradition was carried to the United States, immigrants found the native pumpkin a great fruit for Jack o’ lantern sculpting.
Although pumpkins, uncarved, are also used in autumn harvest decorations, carved pumpkins yield an added bonus: pumpkin seeds.
Rich in fiber and vitamins, the seeds of Jack o’ lantern pumpkins can be spread out on a baking sheet to dry for a few hours, before being tossed with canola or olive oil and salt or seasonings. Then the seeds are simply roasted for a half-hour to 45 minutes on a baking sheet in a moderately hot oven for a delicious autumn treat.