The Fourth Annual Pumpkin Challenge!

My apologies for the lateness of this message, since the official start of the 4th Annual Pumpkin Challenge was September 15th.* If you are hearing of this blessed event for the first time, consider your life changed. Every year, from mid-September through Halloween, my beloved readers are enabled, er, invited to consume as many pumpkin foods as possible. Here are the rules:

• The item consumed must be a food.
• The only beverage allowed is the milkshake.
• Food items may not be doubled. (Two slices of pumpkin cheesecake count as one item. The only way it could count for two different items is if the second item has a distinct enough difference of flavor that it warrants a different name AND the item comes from a different source than the first item.)

This year is your best chance for winning. I may have won every year until now--last year, I set the new record at 30 items--but I have a number of distractions this year that could increase your chances. Or try to be this year's MVPP (Most Valuable Pumpkin Provider) by sending me recipes or, better yet, pumpkin products!

Why have was the Pumpkin Challenge created?
Because pumpkin foods are delicious, yet mostly only offered around Halloween and Thanksgiving. The short-term goal is simple: By starting pumpkin consumption in mid-September, we are increasing demand for pumpkin items earlier than most pumpkin seasons starts. The long-term goal is for pumpkin products year round! Hopefully, like me, you are active in the off-season of the Pumpkin Challenge, too.


*If you feel like whining, you may handicap yourself one pumpkin item if you had not already started. Shamefully, that is all I have eaten so far. Last year, I had around 5 at this point.