It's pumpkin season in the Lakes Region

Living in New Hampshire, October is one of the most glorious months of the year, when the changing leaves transform the landscape into a dazzling palette: brilliant reds, alluring yellows and regal golds among green firs. Autumn is a season that must be treasured, as it can be one of the shortest seasons. As soon as the trees are stripped naked, it isn’t long before we awake to find the ground is covered with a white frost, heralding the beginning of winter.

Of course, the cool weather entices one back into the kitchen, but why is it that in October we begin to not just think about pumpkin pie, but to crave it? After a morning of apple picking there is nothing more appealing than apple pie, just pulled from the oven and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yet, it is warm pumpkin pie and just a little dollop of vanilla ice cream that is one of my very favorite desserts.

I must admit that although my craving for pumpkin pie is high in October when there are pumpkins in shops, on porches and in the fields, I can also find myself baking a pumpkin pie in the summer. It’s just as tasty chilled on a hot summer day.

Of course, I also love the savory taste of pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake (with lots of nuts and raisins), but it is the pie that is my true favorite. The idea of pumpkin flavor in a coffee drink doesn’t appeal to me at all. A doughnut, perhaps.

Someone has also created a pumpkin martini that is described as having “the sweet taste of a traditional pumpkin pie in a glass.” It’s made with vanilla vodka, cream liqueur, pumpkin purée and pumpkin pie spice. Somehow or other, I prefer my pumpkin in a traditional pie baked in an old-fashioned round glass pie plate. I’m just an old-fashioned New Hampshire girl at heart.

While many people look forward to Halloween, I look forward to the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival. And, of course, you can be certain I will be enjoying slices of a pumpkin pie through the weekend of Oct. 27-28. It isn’t until the snow is piled on the sidewalks that I begin thinking about hot chocolate and an Austrian sachertorte, wrapped in a warm blanket in front of a roaring fire and reading a book. That will come soon enough. Now, I’m hoping for a long autumn season.

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Elizabeth Howard is the host of the Short Fuse Podcast, found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or through the Arts Fuse. Her career intersects journalism, marketing, and communications. "Ned O’Gorman: A Glance Back," a book she edited, was published in May 2016. She is the author of "A Day with Bonefish Joe," a children’s book, published by David R. Godine. You can send her a note at eh@elizabethhoward.com.