Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Great Pumpkin Paddle

I had a wonderful adventure on Sunday. I was off to Windsor, Nova Scotia to interview Bob Blumer, better known as the Surreal Gourmet. He has a new show out called Glutton for Punishment and does some really outrageous stuff...including entering the Great Pumpkin Paddle. You can check out the Food for Thought interview for yourself.

In the meantime, if you have 6 minutes you have to check out this video. You'll find out about the history of growing giant pumpkins at the Howard Dill Farm (this year the winner - grown by Jeff Reid of Waterville, NS - at the Maritime Fall Fair was 1202 pounds! and Howard Dill himself is a 4 time Guiness World Record Holder) and you'll learn quite a bit about the Pumpkin Paddle itself.

The drive there was glorious - sun, trees of a million Fall shades of yellow, orange and red. The colours looked more vibrant in real life, so just close your eyes and imagine. Of course as soon as we parked the car...it started to pour, which continued on and off for the next two hours.

I'm not sure if you can actually see the rain pouring through the cracks of this "shelter" - I use the term very loosely. Let's just say, there will be no photos of me. I'm so glad I spent time on my hair to look good for this interview! We were as wet as Bob and we weren't in the water! But I'm jumping ahead of myself.

The paddlers were already on the other side of the bay when we arrived so I just kept a look out for Bob's pumpkin, aptly named Pumpkin Pie....and here's the thing about Bob...he's not ordinary in any way...so while I was looking for something like a pie (he is a chef after all)...Bob (who always thinks outside the box) showed up in his pumpkin π all silver and hi-tech looking. He didn't win...that honor went to Leo Swimimer for the 5th or maybe 6th time in a row!, but Bob still did well.



And while we were chatting after the race, he shared this recipe he got from Andrew Dill, the "Pumpkin Chef" .

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds.

So, when you're done making pumpkin pies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin....whatever, you really should try it out. This batch didn't last very long at my house.


Related Links:

3 comments:

Jim said...

Those seeds look outstanding, but shouldn't you recommend a pie to go with 'em? :D

Ruth Daniels said...

Jim, you're right, I should have a pie...but I usually just buy them. I will have some pumpkin muffins tomorrow.

Thanks for bringing the pie!

Peter M said...

Congrats Ruth, a good interview and Bob's a great guy (having myself met him in TO).