This year, the Kerbeleg vegetable garden gave us a generous gift: 137 kilos of pumpkins harvested by the sweat of their brows, including two giants weighing 21 kilos each. It’s fair to say that seeing these plump beauties lined up makes you feel proud, amused… and a little overwhelmed by the abundance. Harvesting pumpkins is all very well. But what do you do with all that orange flesh?
The magic of the seed
The second generation of seeds reproduced at Kerbeleg begins with a simple gesture: slip a small pinch into the earth. At the time, there was nothing to suggest that they would grow into colossuses weighing between 5 and 21 kilos. And yet, as the weeks go by, nature works with a discreet but implacable force. The yellow flowers open, the fruit swells, and one fine morning, the pumpkin looks like a giant rugby ball.
Planting pumpkins means returning to an age-old tradition of patience: observing, watering, weeding, letting the sun do its work. And then one day, the orange miracle appears, ready to feed an entire village… or almost.
The harvest: a festive moment
Digging a pumpkin out of the ground is always a small event. You wedge your hands under the colossus, lift carefully, and feel the strength of the past season. When the scales read 21 kilos, you almost want to give it a name!
This year, the harvest has taken on a ceremonial air. Stacking the 137 kilos of pumpkins around the two flower boxes that welcome our visitors is like laying a mosaic of bright oranges in our green setting. We never tire of admiring them, each with its own shape, its own striations, its own particular shine.
Gourmet uses
Once the joy of the harvest is over, the question arises: how can we use this mountain of orange flesh? Fortunately, the pumpkin has a thousand faces.
- In soup, velvety and comforting, it soothes chilly autumn evenings.
- In a gratin, it melts in the mouth with cheese.
- In a tart, it reveals an almost sweet sweetness that surprises the taste buds.
- In jam, with a hint of orange or vanilla, it’s an inviting addition to breakfast.
- And for the daring, pumpkin chips, golden brown in the oven, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
In short, at 137 kilos, imagination becomes an indispensable ally!
Pumpkins and traditions
Behind its nourishing flesh, the pumpkin carries a powerful imagination. It’s a symbol of abundance, celebration and conviviality. It’s found in legends from Cinderella to Halloween (Samhain among the Bretons and Celts). In the countryside, it has long been a humble but generous source of food for both man and beast.
Even today, it still brings people together: we dig it to insert a candle, we cook it as a family, we share it with our neighbours. It embodies both the memory of the past and the promise of a nourishing future.
What’s next?
The 137 kilos of pumpkins may be eaten, transformed, given away or kept. But above all, they will leave a luminous memory: that of a garden that gave so much this sunny year, of a generous land that is now alive.
