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Food for Fun and Thought

A Spooky Jack-o’-Lantern Tale

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A Jack-o’-Lantern Legend

The Jack-O’-Lantern comes from a legend that goes back hundreds of years in Irish history. As the story goes, a miserable old drunk named Stingy Jack, who liked to play tricks on his family, friends, and even the Devil, tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree.   Stingy Jack then put crosses around the apple tree’s trunk so the Devil couldn’t get down — but told the Devil that if he promised not to take his soul when he died he would remove the crosses and let the Devil down.

When Jack died, Saint Peter, at the pearly gates of Heaven, told him that he couldn’t enter Heaven because he was mean, cruel, and had led a miserable and worthless life. Stingy Jack then went down to Hell but the Devil wouldn’t take him in.  Jack was scared but with nowhere to go he had to wander around in the darkness between Heaven and Hell.

When Stingy Jack asked the Devil how he could get out without a light to see, the Devil threw him an ember from the flames of Hell. One of Jack’s favorite foods, which he always had when he could steal one, was a turnip.  So he put the ember into a hollowed out turnip and from that day on, Stingy Jack, without a resting place, roamed the earth lighting his way with his “Jack-O’-Lantern.”

All Hallows Eve

Halloween, or the Hallow E’en in Ireland and Scotland, is short for All Hallows Eve, or the night before All Hallows. On All Hallows Eve the Irish made Jack-O’-Lanterns by hollowing out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, and beets and then putting lights in them to keep away both the evil spirits and Stingy Jack.  In the 1800′s when Irish immigrants came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve, and the pumpkin became the Jack-o’-lantern.

If You Want To Eat Your Pumpkin . . .

Jumping from legend to fact:  pumpkins are Cucurbitaceae, a family of vegetables that includes cucumbers and melons. They are fat free and can be baked, steamed, or canned.

One cup of pumpkin has about 30 calories and is high in vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber, and has other nutrients like folate, manganese, and omega 3′s.  Pumpkin is filled with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene which gives it its rich orange hue. It is versatile and can be added to baked goods and blended with many foods.

Pumpkin seeds are delicious and are a good source of iron, copper, and zinc.  Although pumpkin is low in calories, pumpkin seeds are not.   They have 126 calories in an ounce (about 85 seeds) and 285 calories in a cup.

How Much Walking Do You Need To Do To Walk Off Halloween Candy?

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Here’s another way to think about Halloween candy — how much walking will it take to work off the calories in each piece?

These are some of the calculations from walking.com:

  • 1 Fun Size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc. comes to 80 calories. You will need to walk 0.8 miles, 1.29 kilometers, or 1600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  • 2 Hershey’s Kisses comes to 50 calories. You will need to walk 0.5 miles, 0.80 kilometers, or 1000 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  • 2 Brachs caramels comes to 80 calories. You will need to walk 0.8 miles, 1.29 kilometers, or 1600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  • 1 mini bite-size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc.) comes to 55 calories. You will need to walk 0.55 miles, 0.88 kilometers, or 1100 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  • 1 Fun Size M&M packet – Plain or Peanut, comes to 90 calories. You will need to walk 0.9 miles, 1.45 kilometers, or 1800 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  • 1 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup comes to 33 calories. You will need to walk 0.33 miles, 0.53 kilometers, or 660 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  • 1 full size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.) comes to 275 calories. You will need to walk 2.75 miles, 4.43 kilometers, or 5500 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  • 1 King Size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.) comes to 500 calories. You will need to walk 5 miles, 8.06 kilometers, or 10000 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.
  • 1 small Tootsie Roll comes to 25 calories. You will need to walk 0.25 miles, 0.40 kilometers, or 500 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

If You Eat Them All . . .

2 Brachs caramels, 2 Hershey’s Kisses, 1 small Tootsie Roll, 1 Fun Size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc.)1 mini bite-size candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfingers, etc.), 1 Fun Size M&M packet – Plain or Peanut, 1 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, 1 full size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.), 1 King Size chocolate candy bar (Snickers, Hershey, etc.), …that comes to 1188 calories. You will need to walk 11.88 miles, 19.16 kilometers, or 23760 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps.

 

How Much Halloween Candy Will You End Up Eating?

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Is it almost a foregone conclusion that there’s Halloween candy in your future?  It’s pretty hard to escape because it’s everywhere —  on desks, in restaurants, even in my veterinarian’s office in a nice purple bowl with a dog bone painted on the side.

Halloween and the week afterward accounts for about 5% of all candy consumed for the year. The most popular types, in order, are:  chocolate, chewy candies and hard candy.

What’s In Your Kid’s Trick or Treat Bag?

If you’ve ever swiped candy from your kid’s trick or treat bag, you’re certainly not alone. According to the National Confectioners Association, 90% of parents confess they occasionally dip into their kid’s stash. I know I sure did.

Parents invade big time — they eat one candy bar out of every two a child brings home.  Their favorite targets are snack-sized chocolate bars (70%), candy-coated chocolate pieces (40%), caramels (37%) and gum (26%).

In Case You Want To Pick The Least Caloric Candy . . .

Here are the calories in some popular Halloween candy – just in case you might want to minimize the caloric damage (no, that’s not a joke, candy has a big calorie and fat gram range):

  • Hershey’s Milk Chocolate: snack size .49-ounce bar; 67 calories; 4g fat
  • Snickers: Fun size; 80 calories; 4g fat
  • Tootsie Rolls: 6 midgee pieces; 140 calories; 3g fat
  • Skittles Original Bite Size Candies: Fun size bag; 60 calories; 0.7 g fat
  • M&Ms: Fun size bag; 73 calories; 3g fat
  • Butterfinger: Fun size; 85 calories; 3.5g fat
  • Tootsie Roll Pop
: 60 calories; 0g fat
  • Starburst Original Fruit Chews: 2 pieces; 40 calories: 40; 0.8g fat
  • Brach’s Candy Corn: 20 pieces; 150 calories; 0g fat
  • Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup:  Fun size; 80 calories, 4.5g fat
  • Peppermint Pattie:  Fun size; 47 calories; 1g fat
  • Kit Kat:  Fun size; 73 calories; 3.7g fat

 

Can You Lead A Fruit Fly to Vinegar (or wine)?

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Walk into your kitchen – and there they are — swarming around your ripening peaches or bananas.  Don’t those eighth of an inch little red-eyed fruit flies (but really, can you get up front and personal to see their red eyes?) drive you nuts?

Where, oh where, did they come from – and how did they multiply from zero to hordes in no time at all?

Where Did They Come From?

Those fruit flies that can turn into a legion almost instantaneously, initially come from outdoors.  They prefer a diet of yeast, a microbe that eats fruit and spits out alcohol.  They don’t like unripe fruit.

They can be a problem all year but are really common in late summer and fall because of their attraction to ripe or fermented fruit and vegetables that are brought in from the garden. They’re common in homes, restaurants, supermarkets — any place food can rot and ferment.

Produce like tomatoes, melons, squash, and grapes from the garden are often the cause of an indoor infestation. They’re also really attracted to ripe bananas, potatoes, onions, and unrefrigerated produce you buy at markets or grocery stores.

They also can breed in drains, garbage disposals, empty bottles and cans, trash containers, mops and cleaning rags. They only need a moist film of fermenting material to set up house..

Can You Still Eat The Non-Yucky Parts of Infested Produce?

Have you ever wondered if you can cut away the yucky part of the fruit or vegetable that the fruit flies seem to like – and have it still be okay to eat?  The answer is, you can.

Fruit flies lay their eggs near the surface of fermenting foods or moist, organic materials. After they emerge, the larvae continue to feed near the surface.  This means that if you want, you can cut away the damaged or over-ripe sections of fruits and veggies without having to throw away the rest for fear of harboring any lingering larvae.

The reproductive ability of fruit flies is huge; given the right conditions they can lay about 500 eggs. The entire life cycle from egg to adult can be completed in about a week. According to Discovery.com, someone went to the trouble of calculating that in one year one pair of flies (calculated at only 100 eggs per female) could produce a dynasty that, packed in a ball, would fill the void between the Earth and the Sun.

Are They Harmful?

Fruit flies are mainly nuisance pests – but they do have some potential to contaminate food with bacteria and other disease-producing organisms.

Most agricultural products contain a few insects or insect parts but, due to Department of Agriculture regulations, the levels are kept very low which is deemed not to equate to being unsanitary or unhealthy.

How To Keep Them From Flying Around Your Kitchen

The best thing to do is eliminate the prime attractions. Ripe produce should be used, thrown out, or refrigerated. Cracked or damaged parts of fruit and veggies should be cut away and thrown out in case eggs or larvae have set up house in the wounded area. A rotting potato or onion languishing in the back of a cabinet or fruit juice that has spilled and seeped under the refrigerator can breed thousands of fruit flies. Other potential breeding grounds are sink drains, garbage pails, food compactors, and recycling bins that are infrequently emptied or cleaned. Window and door screens help prevent adult fruit flies from coming in from outside.

Once You’ve Got ‘Em . . .

University of Kentucky Entomology

Fruit flies love cider vinegar – and, apparently, wine.  The best approach to catching them seems to be by constructing a trap by putting a paper funnel (rolled from a sheet of notebook or other paper) into a jar that has a few ounces of (apple) cider vinegar in it. Put the jar trap(s) where you see the flies. If you heat up the vinegar in the microwave for about ten seconds it releases even more vinegar smell which the fruit flies seem to love.  They fly through the cone into the vinegar and get trapped. Wine seems to work, too.  Have you ever been outside holding a glass of wine, looked down and found a small fly bathing in it?  Now you know one of the reasons why.

 

 

Has Your Perfect Pumpkin Ever Caved In?

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Manhattan Fruit Exchange, Chelsea Market, NYC

Mine has and I finally found out why.

Although lots of us buy pumpkins to cook the pumpkin flesh or toast the seeds (pumpkins have more beta carotene per serving than any other fruit or vegetable), many of us never buy pumpkins except to use as jack-o’-lanterns or for decoration.

Many commercially available “Halloween” pumpkins are specifically grown to be oversized, thin-walled, with a huge seed pocket and a relatively small proportion of flesh.

Smaller sugar pumpkins have more fleshy pumpkin meat for cooking and often have better flavor and texture.

Will Your Jack-o’-Lantern Be Spooky, Happy, Or Creepy?

Pumpkins come in many sizes, shapes, and colors so pick whatever yanks your chain. Sometimes that’s not so easy because if you go with your family everyone often has his or her own vision of what’s appropriately spooky or decorative.

I bought a really great white pumpkin this year — along with an oddly shaped orange one.  I’m not going to carve the white one. It’s sitting on a rock peering out through some sword-leaved yuccas.  Looks great – some members of my family think it’s weird.

What To Look For When You Pick Your Pumpkin

  •  Pick a pumpkin with no cuts, bruises, or soft spots. The flesh should feel hard and not give easily.   According to one of the pumpkin growers at my local farmers’ market, organisms can easily get inside any cut in the flesh – even a small nick — and cause rot.  Your perfect pumpkin will be great one day and the next day it can totally cave-in on itself.
  • My farmers’ market source told me that pumpkins can heal  — if you see a cut in the flesh, expose the cut to air and keep it dry.
  • There’s some chance that if your pumpkin is greenish in color you can leave it in a cool dry spot – not refrigerated – and it will ripen and turn orange.

  • A pumpkin’s stem should be attached.  Don’t pick up a pumpkin by its stem. Stems break off easily and can leave potential entry spots for organisms to invade and cause the dreaded pumpkin cave-in.

  • Gently tap your pumpkin and listen for how hollow it sounds. Lift the pumpkin to get an idea of how dense it is. The heavier a pumpkin is, the thicker its walls. For a jack-o’-lantern, thick walls will block the candlelight and no one will be able to see your fantastic (or maybe not so fantastic) carving.
  • Store your pumpkin carefully, especially if you pick it off the vine. You can toughen-up, or cure, a fresh-picked pumpkin by keeping it in a dry place without handling or disturbing it. Curing toughens the rind and makes it less prone to rot.  Pumpkins can keep for months in a cool (50 degrees Fto 65 degrees F) dry, low humidity environment.

After The Carving . . .

A carved pumpkin starts to dry and shrivel up as soon as it’s cut and exposed to air.

To keep your jack-o’-lantern fresh longer:

  • Keep it cool and out of direct sunlight
  • Spray it with an anti-transpirant (like Wilt-Pruf and other brands)
  • If you’re having a party or just want a big “reveal,” drape your pumpkin with a damp towel until showtime
  • Protect your masterpiece from animals who might find it appealing
  • Don’t leave your jack-o’-lantern outside if there’s a threat of frost.