There are several things that scream fall to me…colorful leaves, brisk mornings, fresh apples everywhere, and pumpkins! As soon as fall arrives, so does my need to fire up my stove and get baking. It warms the house and our tummies!

When it comes to fall baking, my number one item is apples, but pumpkins are a very close second. I love to make pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, and even pumpkin whoopie pies. A soft, gooey whoopie pie filled with my mom’s special filling (hint: the secret ingredient is Fluff) is the height of fall for me every year.

Typically, I buy canned pumpkin at the store. It is easier and a lot faster. A few years ago, though, I went rogue and decided to use fresh pumpkins.

It all started out innocently enough. I had taken a drive down a back road and came across a stand filled with pumpkins. I started chatting with the owner. He shared that he hadn’t tended the pumpkins as much as usual this year, so while they were all great sizes, they were not necessarily the shapes that people were looking for.

They all looked great to me. He was offering them at a bargain price, so I decided to fill up my car. I may have gone a little overboard and arrived home with 15 pumpkins.

My family thought that I had finally lost my mind. We chose a few for decorating, but the big question was what to do with the rest of them. I felt inspired and stated that I was going to use them for baking and cooking.

My entire Saturday was spent trying to tackle the never-ending tower of pumpkins. They all needed to be washed, opened, de-seeded, cut up, peeled, and cooked. It was a way bigger project than I had anticipated. I spent hours prepping and cooking all of those pumpkins. Most of the pumpkins were mashed, strained, and ready to use for baking. I kept some out to use right away and froze the rest. In my mind, I was envisioning fresh pumpkin pie at the holidays.

I will admit, though, that I was getting tired. The last few pumpkins were left in chunks while I frantically looked up recipes in which I could use all of the pumpkin goodness. I finally decided to just roast some of them and serve them with our meals for the week. A very yummy addition!

The next afternoon, I was ready to bake. I made my first pie with fresh pumpkin. The smell throughout the house was heavenly. Waiting for it to cool felt like torture. Finally, after dinner, we were ready to give it a try. All I could think was that this was going to be the best pie ever. All of the hours of prep work were going to pay off. My husband took his first bite. I leaned forward in anticipation. He looked at me and said, ”tastes the same as it usually does”. I was heartbroken. All I could think of was the hours of prep I had put into this pie.

I will say that that fall and winter I used all of the fresh pumpkin in the freezer. We had it with several meals, and it was included in a lot of my baking. But after that year, I switched back to canned pumpkin. I did enjoy knowing the amount of love and effort that went into prepping my fresh pumpkin, but I just haven’t quite been ready to tackle that project again. Maybe next year, if my pumpkin patch takes off!

P.S. You can try some of the great recipes I found in our Pumpkin Collection!