Fall is in the Air ~ October 1

     Well, it's really starting to feel like fall here, and all of the grocery stores are putting up the Halloween decor.  One thing you'll see this time of year are pumpkins...big ones, small ones, ready picked or pick your own.  If you have children of the right age, picking your own can be a real family treat.  Making a full day of pumpkin picking activities.  If you don't have kids of that age you might want to recruit some for a day so you can enjoy this event, maybe Grandkids, or nieces and nephews, or maybe you could just tag along with a some friends and their kids.  
     My point in all of this is a simple (and frugal yet again) suggestion.  If you are so inclined to purchase a pumpkin or two for Halloween decoration, you might want to consider painting on your scary faces rather then carving them.  First of all it's a lot safer for little kids, a lot less messy for mom to clean up, and if your timing is good you can then use the meat of the pumpkin for your holiday baking.

     Yes, that canned stuff you buy to make pumpkin pie really did start out as one of those big orange things, and it really isn't difficult to prepare a fresh pumpkin for yourself.  We did this last year and found the instructions on the Pick Your Own website very helpful.  As a side note, once you have your pumpkin cooked, you can freeze it for later use...like for some homemade pies for Christmas....

     Follow this delicious looking pie (and yes ours looked just as good) for the instructions.

You might also want to go to this sites home page and bookmark it....it's a great source for information about U-Pick farms all over the country.