Monday, March 21, 2011

Getting ready for August 4 2011

The Scarecrow Forest is getting ready for our August 4th opening. Shirley has been busy every Friday at the local thriftshop finding clothes and interesting props for the scarecrows. It is amazing how much clothing it takes for the entire forest and for people to stuff their own scarecrow. Last year our theme was Farmer Hank and the scenes showed him doing various things around the forest. This year our theme is Families. Every scene is going to depict a scarecrow family doing something different in the forest. One scene is going to depict a family painting Penner Pumpkin's first greenhouse. Another scene is a family going for a leisurely bike ride through the forest. We are going to add a couple of new paths this year so that people who don't want to walk the entire trail can do a small loop and still see some scarecrows. We start stuffing the scarecrows and setting up the scenes in July. It takes us about a week to stuff and set everything up and takes up to 6 people to get all the work down.

Lorissa

Saturday, March 12, 2011

How to Bake a Pumpkin

Baking a pumpkin is very similar to baking squash. If you don't know how to bake squash I will tell you exactly how to bake a pumpkin.

First: Select a pumpkin. Pie pumpkins are bred specially for pies and have less water content than Jack O Lantern pumpkins, hence making a thicker pie. They also are sweeter than a regular pumpkin.

Second: Turn oven on to 325 degrees F. Wash the pumpkin and than cut it in half.

Third: Scoop out the insides. Make sure to get all the seeds out and any stringy material. Save the seeds to bake later on.

Third: Place both halves pulp side down on a baking pan. Cover halves with tin foil and put water in pan so that the bottom is covered.

Fourth: Put in oven and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour. Baking time will depend on the size of the pumpkin and the kind of oven you own. At the 45 minute mark poke the pumpkin with a fork, if it slides in easily the pumpkin is done, if not keep baking the pumpkin til the fork can slide in easily.

Fifth: Once the pumpkin is done and cool enough to touch, peel the skin off the pumpkin and discard, cut the pumpkin into small pieces and place in a blender. Don't put too much pumpkin into the blender at once as the pumpkin won't have a smooth texture. Once the pumpkin is all pureed than you are ready to use it. If you have too much pumpkin puree, it freezes really well (either use bags or containers).

Enjoy your pumpkin muffins, pies, cookies, soup etc.

Lorissa