Little Pumpkins, little pumpkins come out come our where ever you are.....

Ah Pumpkins. Seeing boxes of them stacked at the supermarket last night reminded me of their deep smell, rich flesh and tactile skins. How I love Pumpkins. Big ones, small ones, knobbly bobbly ones. They are a cuddly, strokable vegetable with as many variations as it's glorious colour...........and what a colour.
Looking at it just makes you feel all warm and glowing inside. It's like a mini portable heater of colour. Faced with a whole wall of it last night, I couldn't help but think how bang on trend orange is for this season. It is the colour for this Autumn.

You can wear it as key items or, as I intend to, as bold accents of colour splashes that evoke a burst of warm glow to your skin. It's a very flattering colour - in the right tonal blend to your skin. My skin being darker and my dark hair requires a more latino flavour and so burnt orange is always a good one for me. Rich, vibrant and full in body. Paler english roses are lucky and can take a paler colour right down to a wash. If your skin tone is a darker than latino then the more vibrant and glowing the orange. Basically the rule of thumb is - the darker the skin the more rich and solid the colour palette.
I have my eye on a jigsaw orange scarf I caught a brief fleeting glimpse of when I was in town the other day. Mud Boy always jokes that my eyes are like a hawk searching for prey when it comes to clothes. I can spot something that will suit me perfectly from 200 yards away he says. I just know after years of failure what finally does suit me. It's a highly honed and acquired skill don't ya know.

In the end I didn't pick up any pumpkins - give it another week before I start baking all things orange and knobbly. For when Halloween is upon us I become slightly pumpkin obsessed. If I am not carving them or decorating them, I'm cooking with them making pumpkin muffins, far ranging pumpkin soups, pumpkin risotto, roasted pumpkin, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cupcakes and delicious pumpkin pies in as many different varieties as I can. I just adore pumpkin. The orange colour of the fleshy food is so inviting and  along with all the other squashes of the season they find their way into every morsel of food we consume for the whole of the Autumn fall. It is a food not only beautiful in colour but also of property. I think the reason my body finds it so appealing is for this very reason. For our bodies know instinctively what is good for them if only we'd listen more.
Pumpkins, indeed all orange squashes, including my favourite butternut, contain cancer busting beta carotene and life saving vitamin C. High in fibre and low in potassium. They also contain calcium, iron and are low in salt and fat. I know it is the iron in them that my body cries out for, but it is the beta carotene that gives them their bright luscious colour and is wisely used by our bodies to make vitamin A.
From now on until they are depleted from the shops, I will stock up on pumpkins, filling my basket with three or more every week. They are jolly easy to store over winter time. As the pumpkin, like most vegetables and living creatures breathes through it's skin - to keep it fresh all you have to do is seal the tiny holes. You do this by smearing your pumpkin in vaseline and voila it will stay fresh all winter! A perfect stored burst of the Summer's bright sun that helped it grow. That's how I look at pumpkins, as a wonderful vessel stored with to the brim with bright light warming sunshine. Mother Natures perfect sun container.