Around the Farm Table

garage door rattling

The machine to me, it's improbable. If you had told me how it works, I'd say, "Nah, that wouldn't work," but it actually works very well.

engine rumbling

surf rock music

air whooshing

air whistling

pumpkin thumping

All the work, all the planning that you've done, everything is all geared to today. Today is a huge relief; it's very exciting. It's harvest.

surf rock music

motor rumbling

pumpkins thudding

When we have harvest, we need a whole bunch of people to help. And I think what's really interesting is we never know what kind of crew we're gonna end up with. So we're always meeting people, and that is really wonderful. Today, we harvested pumpkins with Ken and Jay. It's very physical, but I really enjoy helping out friends.

whooshing

It's my 13th year helping Ken and Jay harvest pumpkins. My role now, kind of is just like kicking their butts and like, let's get going here and get this done. Harvesting pumpkins is actually a lot of fun. We take turns grabbing the pumpkins off the ground. We break them off the vine and then we just toss them into the chopper box, basically. It's incredible to see the technology of these machines, to be able to harvest those pumpkins, separate out the seed, and get it all cleaned. These kinds of things really help out around the farm.

Ken

It smashes up the pumpkins, and then it goes into a series of three tubes. And in the very first tube, it actually will spit out out the back end the rind, the flesh of the pumpkin, so it's a net gain of organic matter to the field.

surf rock music

Ken

And the seeds move on into the other tubes where they're cleaned. And we end up with remarkably clean seeds at the end. Helping out other farmers like this, it means a lot to me. It's nice to feel like I've helped a local farmer create a product. It's very nice to be with community in doing this. The harvest is a delight; it's just a delight.

tractor rumbling

gentle acoustic guitar music

cat meowing

geese honking

Ken

So tell me a little bit about the oil. I wanna know like what it tastes like, what are those benefits of this oil? Actually. You know, have you ever had roasted pumpkin seeds? Yeah. It has a rich nutty flavor; it's delicious. I mean, that's the main reason we're doing this. It's a really tasty, delicious oil.

Inga

The color is beautiful and kind of unexpected. It is; you're not normally seeing this in oils. And actually, the color is the nutrition. So pumpkin seed oil is rich in some of these compounds that are antioxidants in our body. And it's a very healthy fat with a wide range of benefits, you know, from healthy cholesterol to supporting heart health. But the thing that we like to really focus on is the taste. It tastes good. The flavor is really amazing. It's delicate and nice. How else do you use this? 'Cause it seems to be very, you don't wanna heat it. You're right. So it's also high in omega-3 fatty acids that are delicate, they don't like high heat, so you wouldn't fry in it. But you would use it like this, salted to dip bread in, or maybe most commonly a salad dressing, a vinegarette salad dressing, or to put it on cooked vegetables, like it's been asparagus season here. It's delicious on asparagus, on broccoli. Well, this is really interesting. I have a couple ideas on how I wanna use this in the kitchen. So if you don't mind, I'd like to get started. Yeah, our pleasure, please do. - Wonderful, let's go.