Fall is pumpkin season, which, in my opinion, is one of the best things about this time of year. In Los Angeles, we don’t get the pretty leaves or the crystalline blanket of snow that make the northern areas so lovely, but we most certainly do get pumpkins! Halloween just wouldn’t feel complete without these giant gourds, carved or cooked. I had to find a good one for my porch, and no destination seemed more fitting than the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival!
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Pumpkins are super important to the town of Calabasas, which, according to legend, derives its name from an incident involving a Basque rancher who toppled his wagon full of pumpkins onto the road. From this spill sprouted the area’s first pumpkin patch, making it the place of Las Calabazas. Of course, not everyone agrees with this theory, not only because a Basque rancher would probably have named the place Kuiak, but also because the native Chumash already called the area Calahoosa, or “place of gourds!”
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No matter the origin of the name, Calabasas throws a yearly bash in honor of its namesake fruit, inviting artisans, craftsfolk, and live bands to celebrate its harvest. The crafts were creative and the music fun, but my favorite part of the event was that every food vendor had to serve at least one pumpkin-based dish. That means I got to sample pumpkin stew, pumpkin tamales, pumpkin shakes, and of course, pumpkin pie! For smelling so strange when raw, pumpkins sure do turn out nicely after some time in the oven! Yum!
You wouldn’t think it, based on the huge crowd that attends the festival each year, but the event is actually pretty small. Luckily, for those of us who digest better with some space, the Pumpkin Festival is located in gorgeous Juan Bautista de Anza Park, which commemorates the Spanish explorer’s passing through the area in 1776 and offers a surreal hiking experience!
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I don’t know what it is about these 500-700 year old oak trees, but whenever I visit them, I feel I have breached the frontier of reality and magic! These mighty oaks contrast amazingly with the long, golden grass and the storm clouds overhead, and the branches are home to a yin and yang of black ravens and white falcons! Plus, no matter how many people have attended the event or live in the encompassing suburb, it is quiet and isolated on these steep slopes. A half-hour hike or a trip to the wooden swing on one of the oak boughs is good for more than just digestion!
Like Dorothy Gale, we all must come back from our fantastic adventures at some point, and with the festival set to close soon, it was time to pick a pumpkin to bring home with me. Surprisingly, whole pumpkins were a rare commodity at the Pumpkin Festival, so much so that the same pumpkins I’d seen for three dollars at Trader Joe’s were going for fifteen at the festival! I saw no signs indicating proceeds going to charity, which made this straight-up price carving! Outrageous! Then again, I did say I would pick up a pumpkin at the Pumpkin Festival…
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Ultimately, the spirit of Halloween won, and I brought home my gigantic pumpkin to carve. I suppose I could have followed in the footsteps of the old Irish who started the Jack o’ Lantern tradition with turnips and beets, but alas, there is no such thing as a Turnip or Beet Festival in California! All that aside, after spending hours debating a design, I plunged my teeth into that orange husk and came out with this:
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It’s an Ouroboros! A serpent eating its own tail! Since it’s 2012, and there’s all this ruckus about either the end of the world or the start of a new age, I thought it would be appropriate. I know, I know, the feathered serpent is an Aztec symbol, but I sure as heck don’t have the skills to chew out a Mayan calendar! In any case, it represents infinity and the renewal of life, and that is my hope for the coming few months! Here’s to the holiday season!
Jack o’ Laters!
