Vampire Pumpkins and Watermelons

I ripped this straight from wikipedia, but I had to share it.

Vampire pumpkins and watermelons are a folk legend from the Balkans, in southeastern Europe, described by ethnologist Tatomir Vukanović. The story is associated with the Roma people of the region, from whom much of traditional vampire folklore, among other unusual legends, originated.

The belief in vampire fruit is similar to the belief that any inanimate object left outside during the night of a full moon will become a vampire. According to tradition, watermelons or any kind of pumpkin kept more than ten days or after Christmas will become a vampire, rolling around on the ground and growling to pester the living. People have little fear of the vampire pumpkins and melons because of the creatures' lack of teeth. One of the main indications that a pumpkin or melon is about to undergo a vampiric transformation (or has just completed one) is said to be the appearance of a drop of blood on its skin.

(My note: the blood is apparently rot, mold, or fungi of some kind that is red and mottled in appearance.)
The only known reference in scholarship is Tatomir Vukanović's account of his journeys in Serbia from 1933 to 1948. He wrote several years later in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society:
The belief in vampires of plant origin occurs among Gs. [Gypsies] who belong to the Mosl. faith in KM [Kosovo-Metohija]. According to them there are only two plants which are regarded as likely to turn into vampires: pumpkins of every kind and water-melons. And the change takes place when they are 'fighting one another.' In Podrima and Prizrenski Podgor they consider this transformation occurs if these vegetables have been kept for more than ten days: then the gathered pumpkins stir all by themselves and make a sound like 'brrrl, brrrl, brrrl!' and begin to shake themselves. It is also believed that sometimes a trace of blood can be seen on the pumpkin, and the Gs. then say it has become a vampire. These pumpkins and melons go round the houses, stables, and rooms at night, all by themselves, and do harm to people. But it is thought that they cannot do great damage to folk, so people are not very afraid of this kind of vampire.

Among the Mosl. Gs. in the village of Pirani (also in Podrima) it is believed that if pumpkins are kept after Christmas they turn into vampires, while the Lešani Gs. think that this phenomenon occurs if a pumpkin used as a syphon, when ripe and dry, stays unopened for three years.

Vampires of vegetable origin are believed to have the same shape and appearance as the original plant.
...
The Gs. in KM. destroy pumpkins and melons which have become vampires ... by plunging them into a pot of boiling water, which is then poured away, the vegetables being afterwards scrubbed by a broom and then thrown away, and the broom burned.

The majority of Vukanović's article discusses human vampires; vampiric agricultural tools are also mentioned. Though modern readers may be skeptical that such beliefs ever existed, the superstitions of Gypsy culture are well documented. The Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society has many articles that are collections of Gypsy tales, presumably oral history. However others are horror stories that allegedly include the direct involvement of the source (e.g., the fatal consequences of disrespecting the dead). In this context, vampire pumpkins and watermelons are not necessarily any more implausible than other superstitious beliefs.

Notes from the Michael Pollan Lecture

A quick post, I have been reading like crazy for the thesis and will be posting some academic book reviews (read: excerpts of my annotated bib.). Stay tuned.

So the other night I was lucky to go see Michael Pollan. He was giving a lecture put on by the California Lectures series with the question being presented by AG Kawamura, the Secretary of Agriculture for California.

I originally got tickets with the intent to scribble notes down furiously for my thesis, however not much was said that I could use but the event was intellectually stimulating none the less. Not to mention tons of fun as the reception was catered by Grange and Frog's Leap and I was able to chat and goof with some of my best food friends.

Pollan brought up many topics but seemed to make a focus of the idea of how we farm; mainly that there is no one right way. He noted that organic doesn't mean best or even healthiest. He spoke about one farmer he met that was unable to be certified as organic by the government as the feed he used for his cows wasn't organically grown, however the feed was local and the farmer felt it had less of an ecological footprint as it didn't have to be shipped from far away.

Another farmer he met had created an seemingly Orwellian system in which he had a two acre greenhouse. In it there were various manure piles which would heat the greenhouse. Large tanks filled with farmed tilapia were kept and the waste water was used to fertilize the plants in the greenhouse. The plants then would give off more oxygen for condensation to help create a mini-climate system of sorts (my terminology might be wrong here, if so I apologize). Furthermore parts of the greenhouse were tarped with plastic to simulate different growing regions all in one space. Crazy, no?

Pollan also talked about a cycle farming system used in Peru where cows would graze on a space for three years. The cattle would be moved and grain or corn would be planted. The amount of nitrogen from the cattle would sustain the crops for three years. Afterwards it's harvested, the ground allowed to chill a bit and grow sod, and the cycle restarts.

Basically, he encouraged the idea of many different flowers. There is no singular method to farming that will help feed the world.

AG and Pollan lastly went into the depravity that is Federal school lunches. Created when the government noticed that potential soldiers weren't getting enough calories and the Ag. industry had excess crops we turned our children into little waste disposing units. Sixty years later we are doing the same but with the farm excess worse than ever and certainly not nutritional.

Furthermore, with cuts in school funding and school years losing weeks of teaching time kids aren't being given a holistic - let alone effective - education about nutrition.

He talked about so much more but to go into every detail would be far too difficult. NPR should have a recording up soon. I'll be sure to post it when it is.

A Brief Musing About the Canning Cycle

This post is short but sweet - just a little something to consider. I'm on Summer Break and before I nose dive into the thesis research that will consume it I am taking a week from any real thinking. Still, while reading the New York Times I came across this little piece about home canning. Apparently it's sweeping the nation. People are once again taking part in what used to be a regular, seasonal tradition of food storage. Every single culinary culture on earth had ways of preserving their food for long periods of time.

However, when technological and biological advancements occurred in the 1920's this stopped. Mass canning production was initially funded for the purpose of the war efforts so that soldiers could have portable, long lasting food with them on the battlefield. After the great war the technology and production factories turned towards the public for income.

Canned good began to be praised as a way for the everyday woman to save herself hours upon hours of time stocking up fruits and veggies for the year. Indeed it was a time saver that way. Women were liberated from the strain of the kitchen. The food lasted even longer than home cooked. (It is also no surprise that the frozen dinner was invented at this time.)

Tins of food were a godsend. Yet as time went by people began to take more interest into what actually went into these canned good. Shocked and horrified and the quality of the produce used, the vast array of chemicals and procedures, and the underwhelming taste the food focused have begun to turn back to canning.

However, the new canning is different. We're canning and jarring recipes from a wide diversity of culture. Having a jar of kimchi next to your plum jam isn't uncommon. We have clearer understanding of the science of canning making it safer than ever (however, a point to consider, generations of people figured it out without knowing the micro-chemical biology behind it). We have the ability to create new flavors, and tools are more specific than ever. Plenty of books and manuals can be found on the internet so we can teach ourselves.

Cultural patterns and practices in the long term seem to be cyclical in nature. Fads, ideas, thoughts, practices and so on come into fashion then die out only to come back but slightly different than it was before. Raymond Williams in his discussion of Marxist theory calls this the cycle of dominant, emergent, and the residual in the construction of cultural ideas and norms. 

However canning seems to occupy all there spheres. The dominant idea of preserving food has sustained. While before the process of doing it at home was, and for the most part still is a residual concept for most of America it is re-emerging with new ideas, concepts and twist with an intense focus on good, clear, fair food. 

So will this trend continue? Will we once again tire of it and start turning back to buying canned goods again only this time cleaner and organic?

*The picture you see is from a jar of Seville orange marmalade made by Elise Bauer. Picture by me.