This time of year, I become obsessed with pumpkins. I want to bedeck our house with gourds of all different sizes. Vibrant orange pumpkins are my winter squash of choice, although I know they are surpassed in eating quality by varieties like butternut and buttercup. The outward appearance of many of these sweeter squashes is too pale or merely green, the colors of late or early squash instead of peak.

There’s something satisfying about a hefty squash. It’s like a meaty acorn in a blue jay’s cache which holds out hope and calories against the clouds looming on the horizon, dark and swollen with the first threat of snow. The ephemeral plumpness of wild grapes can’t compare.