After ten years of life abroad sans an authentic jack o’lantern, I was delighted to awaken my Halloween spirit by visiting a veritable American pumpkin patch last autumn, following a splendid long weekend in the Napa Valley. The California farm’s scruffy scarecrows, colorful gourds, and pumpkins transformed into storybook characters brought to mind some of my favorite Halloween childhood memories: everything from dressing up as The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy (sporting Mom’s wedding shoes, which she’d adorned with thick squares of red glitter; dog Jenny even trick-or-treated with me in a basket) to entering a chicken pox-stricken pumpkin donning a glass thermometer into my elementary school’s pumpkin contest.
Here in Germany, Halloween is only sporadically celebrated, particularly in expat communities. Still, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite Halloween candies and memories of Halloweens past to make merry, along with some European autumn-inspired twists like Italian Risotto with Butternut Squash. How are you celebrating tonight? What are some of your fondest memories of October 31st?
The more diminutive pumpkins, dubbed ‘Apprentice Pumpkins.’
Shawn sees how our ‘Apprentice Pumpkin’ weighs in.
Where in the World?
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Filed under: Holidays and Commemorative Days, Travelogues Tagged: California, Halloween, pumpkin farm, travel, USA
