OPB’s “Superabundant” explores the stories behind the foods of the Pacific Northwest with videos, articles and this weekly newsletter. To keep you sated between episodes, Heather Arndt Anderson, a Portland-based culinary historian, food writer and ecologist, highlights different aspects of the region’s food ecosystem. This week she offers a recipe for a hearty fall salad of roasted pumpkin and lentils.

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We love edible holiday decorations as much as the next person — little houses built of cookies are a gosh-dang delight — but why do we hack up a perfectly good vegetable and then let it rot on our porches? The tradition of carving jack-o’-lanterns isn’t even that old — it only goes back to the 1800s. Halloween itself dates back to around the 9th century, as basically a Christianized version of the ancient Gaelic harvest festival Samhain, but the Irish didn’t start carving pumpkins — an American ingredient — until they arrived in the U.S. in the 19th century. The Irish had other American crops by then (the potato being the most enthusiastically embraced) so it’s kind of a head-scratcher why they slept on pumpkins for so long. Before Irish immigrants arrived on American shores, another vegetable was the standard for jack-o-lanterns. Do you know what it is? Read on to find out!

Pumpkin pontoons, nutty news, thresher thrashing, terroir terror and good things in gardens and markets

Freshly picked morsels from the Pacific Northwest food universe:

Gourd galleon

Corn mazes and hayrides may get all the love this time of year, but there’s something extra special about watching people paddle the Tualatin River in a supremely large gourd. The West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta is coming this Sunday (Oct. 22).

Go nuts

Unless you have a life-threatening allergy, we invite you to celebrate National Nut Day on Oct. 22. Though they’ve only been Oregon’s official state nut since 1989, hazelnuts have been an important crop in the Beaver State for more than two centuries. After last year’s catastrophic low prices, local hazelnut growers are cautiously optimistic about the 2023 crop, reports the Capital Press.

Combine combat

If you thought monster truck rallies were a hoot, well, gird your loins. This week our favorite ag-lit newsletter, Ambrook Research, featured a photo essay of Banks, Oregon’s, annual tractor battle, which has been going on for around 25 years (the associated BBQ has been an annual event for 77 years). Check it out.

The hills are alive with the sound of cannons

Who needs a scarecrow when you can use a sonic blast to shoo birds away from crops? In case the noise is alarming anyone, the Statesman Journal reports that winemakers in the Willamette Valley have been blasting cannons to keep birds from eating their grapes (which ostensibly just transfers the problem to some other vineyard, but whatever).

In the “Superabundant” garden this week

The peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and hobak/zucchini have apparently not gotten the memo that summer is over — they’re still blooming their brains out and making a really weak case for transitioning the garden beds to cool-season crops (regardless, we did pick the last green tomatoes for this week’s recipe). The tomatillos have been steadily ripening and not really showing any signs of slowing down. The chervil that seeded itself all over the place is coming in quite lushly, and while it pains us to admit it, we’re having increasing regrets about having ever planted the black nightshade that is currently taking over an entire raised bed. Like its aster-family cousins, the crown daisy is loving the cooler, wetter weather and we’ll soon have enough of the greens for all manner of hotpots.

Good things in markets

Decorative gourd season continues to delight us — winter squashes of every persuasion abound, as well as all the peppers, apples and pears. Radicchio, endive and chicory are making their season debut. Persimmons and quinces are showing up at better-stocked markets around the state (if you don’t know what to do with these, take a look at our “weird fruits” coverage from last year), and did you know that Oregon is one of the top producers of kiwiberries in the U.S.? These sweet, unfuzzy fruits are now in season. And the wild mushrooms have been pouring in! (To wit, a recent stroll through the woods outside Clatskanie yielded a large porcini and enough chanterelles for a couple meals.)

Recipe: Roasted pumpkin and lentil salad

Many of you have no doubt selected your pumpkins for carving into Halloween jack-o’-lanterns (unless you’re a real creep and use turnips instead, like the Irish did before they started using pumpkins), but this year we issue a plea: eat them instead. Every year, billions of pounds of winter squash are butchered and unceremoniously dumped into the bin (or scattered across your yard by squirrels/disaffected youths). The carbon emissions from this much food waste is staggering, especially since the entire pumpkin plant is edible. So eat your pumpkins! They’ll still look lovely on your porch without being carved.

For this recipe, go with a cooking pumpkin about the size of a cantaloupe and don’t worry about peeling it. A smaller pumpkin will generally have more tender skin than a big old lunker, but thin-skinned varieties like kabocha are pleasant to eat at any size, rind and all. This hearty salad is excellent served slightly warm, but it’s also delicious after it’s been sitting in the fridge soaking up the dressing for a few hours. Serves 4

Ingredients

1 small (2-3 lb) pumpkin, kabocha or other winter squash

4 cloves garlic (don’t peel)

¼ cup olive oil, divided

A few pinches of salt and pepper

1 shallot, thinly sliced

2 tbsp lemon juice or red wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp honey

4 cups arugula or baby kale

1 ¾ cups cooked green or brown lentils (canned is fine, but drain and rinse them first)

4 tbsp shelled pumpkin seeds (preferably toasted)

4 tbsp crumbled cotija or feta

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350º.
2. Halve the pumpkin, scoop out the guts (consider saving the seeds!), and slice it into 1″-thick wedges. Place the pumpkin wedges and garlic on a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the oil and sprinkle on a few pinches of salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes, flip the pumpkin slices over, then continue to roast until they’re caramelized evenly on both sides, another 10-15 minutes.
3. While the pumpkin is roasting, steep the shallots in the lemon juice or vinegar.
4. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins into a medium-sized bowl and mash them with a fork. Whisk in the remaining olive oil, the lemon juice or vinegar from the shallots, the Dijon mustard, the honey and a couple more pinches of salt and pepper until smooth and creamy.
5. Strew the arugula or kale across a large platter, then top with the roasted pumpkin wedges, pickled shallots and the lentils. Spoon the dressing evenly over the salad, then top with the pumpkin seeds and cotija.

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