Cinderella pumpkins and Novella Carpenter

Two movies to inspire you

By Culinate staff

October 22, 2009

You may already know about Cooking Up a Story, the Oregon-based website that features farmers, food activists, journalists, and other experts — on film.

This week, just in time for Halloween, CUPS cooks up advice from a farmer about how to prepare fresh pumpkins for eating. Remember, jack-o-lantern pumpkins don’t cut it; choose a Cinderella, sugar pie, or other cooking variety.

After you watch, head over to Keri Fisher’s pumpkin piece on Culinate to investigate recipes that go beyond pie.

Meanwhile, over on Chow, as part of its “Obsessives” series, Novella Carpenter, an urban farmer in Oakland, California, talks about raising goats — and much more — on her city lot.

Incidentally, if you’re inspired to start an urban farm and think you’ll start with chickens — “They’re virtually no work,” says Carpenter in the film’s section for aspiring farmers — you might want read Kim Severson’s latest piece in the New York Times about some of the unique challenges these animals present.