Fall has arrived in Portlandia, and many of us have been making the annual pilgrimage to Sauvie Island, where one can take in the brisk autumn air, search for the perfectly imperfect pumpkin, get lost in a corn maze, and dig into an elephant ear as big as your head. Or in my case, completely O.D. on freshly popped kettle corn.
The Sauvie farm stands are also a great place to pick up local produce — I’m still marveling at the 10-pound bag of beets I picked up for 9 bucks.
This past weekend, as I stood in a field looking at pumpkins as far as the eye could see, it occurred to me how seldom we eat pumpkin here in the U.S.
Outside of Halloween — and the traditional pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving — I bet the closest many of us come to eating pumpkin throughout the year is a pumpkin spice latte. Or pumpkin loaf. Both of which have a ton of sugar, and not much real pumpkin happening.
It’s too bad, really, because pumpkin is a seriously healthy food. Check it out: