What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye? What calls back the past like the rich pumpkin pie?

John Greenleaf Whittier

American Traditional Food

What is a pumpkin? Pumpkins like other squash originated from America. The oldest seeds were found in Mexico. European settlers found natives cultivating squash and seeds were traded or given as gifts. Pumpkins have been with the traditional American experience since before European immigrants came to the Americas.

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 1/2 cup of organic all purpose flour for a single pie crust, which will fit a 10 inch pie plate.
• Salt to taste, I use 1/2 a teaspoon.
• 1/2 a cup of chilled lard. Chilling everything including the flour helps keep the crust flaky and delicate tasting.
• 3 or 4 tablespoons of ice water.

Pumpkin Mix

• 15 ounces of steamed mashed pumpkin flesh. Yes I admit, I kill pumpkins! I love to plant and grow pumpkins and I love to eat them too!
• 14 ounces of liquid, you can use what ever you wish, I used half cream and half milk with sorghum molasses as the sweetener rather than sweetened condensed milk. Sweeten your choice of liquid to taste. This will give your mix a sweet taste. I used 1/2 cup of molasses that made up my 14 ounces of liquid.
• 2 large blended eggs
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, fresh or dried
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 1 - 9 inch pie crust
• Preheat oven to 425 degree, bake 15 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees bake 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean.

This is a fancy little French pumpkin that I grew in my back yard here in Tulsa. I have forgotten it's traditional name but the flesh is naturally sweet and makes a great pumpkin pie or soup.

Add your salt to your flour, cut the chilled lard into your flour until the mixture looks like large crumbs. Add iced water one tablespoon at a time. Lightly mix into the lard/flour mixture until it is moist and forms a firm dough ball.

Roll into a 10 or 11 inch circle, fold into quarters and place into pie plate

Form a lip with the edges of your pie crust. This will add a decorative look and keep the mix inside the plate when baking, especially if you add to much pie mix, which I do sometimes.

Mix the mashed pumpkin and other ingredients together and pour into your pie crust. This is a very easy pie to make!

Some of the pumpkins I grew in Oregon

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