Photos

No, this is not a bad Halloween or Thanksgiving prank. This is the fruit of the labour of one Cappadocian woman over an entire day. (To be more precise, the pumpkin seeds were the fruit, and these were the leftovers!) I was in Cappadocia in early October, and the weather felt like summer, but the abundance of pumpkins made it feel like autumn. Everywhere that I went, I saw women surrounded by enormous piles of pumpkins, cutting them open, extracting the seeds, and discarding the rest. Apparently the pulp is rarely used for cooking; instead, the pumpkin scraps are fed to animals. I regret that the pictures I took of women working on the pumpkins didn't turn out well, but you can still see in this "morning after" shot where she was sitting, and you can see that she's got a few more pumpkins left to seed - a little bit later in the day. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it, and enjoy your pumpkin pie!