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Pumpkin Paradise

This festive season, why not roast a crown of thorns as part of your Christmas dinner? Or hunt down Red October to use as a table decoration? It’s not as strange as it sounds – they are both varieties of pumpkin.

Pumpkins – what lovable plants! With an incredible array of fruit shapes, textures and colours, they are as decorative as they are wholesome.

So I was in pumpkin paradise visiting Kew Gardens in autumn this year: their ‘IncrEdibles’ kitchen garden event featured the most gorgeous, weird and wonderful assemblage of pumpkins I’ve ever seen. A pumpkin pyramid was spectacularly reflected in the pond in the waterlily house while outside, baskets, barrows, bowls and urns overflowed with pumpkins of every size, shape, colour and texture imaginable. It was glorious and opulent. There were carved pumpkins, painted pumpkins, pumpkin patches and pumpkin stories. Even the names sound like they are out of fairy tales: Turk’s Turban, Harlequin, Sunbeam, Yellow Bird, Sweet Lightning, Babyboo, Ghost Rider, Crown of Thorns, Autumn Wings. Even the Queensland Blue put in an appearance!

The other focus of the IncrEdibles was Fungi – but that’s another story for another blog!

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