Pumpkin Spice and everything nice, like mom’s pumpkin bars!

Warning this post is not about sheep!

It’s about October and time for Pumpkins! I LOVE pumpkins and pumpkin spice, and all the fall pumpkin things! Such a symbol of autumn and a happy vegetable! We don’t sell pumpkins, but it is fun to grow a few each year. Maybe someday we’ll grow more, because I love them!

The pumpkins pictured were planted by my chickens. An unexpected fun blessing! Fall with Thanksgiving around the corner reminds me to count my blessings too! :)

After the hot busy summer on the farm, it is such a transitional time of year when I feel like we can really start to relax. Unlike row or crop farmers, fall is a less busy season for us as sheep farmers. A few lambs might come, but it’s a time to catch our breath, think, and recuperate. We have some winter preparations to do, but nothing too hard here in southern Ohio. A perfect time for lingering coffees on the porch with some pumpkin spice creamer! (Living so far from town I don’t get many lattes!)

Fall was one of my mom’s favorite times of year too! Her birthday was Oct 3rd which could be why she liked it so much. Every fall she’d make several batches of delicious pumpkin bars and often want them as her cake!! They always came out perfect too and are pretty easy! But they are an fall indulgence and NOT a health food recipe!

So, in honor of fall, perfect pumpkins, and my mom, below is her Pumpkin bar recipe (I’m not sure where she originally got it from).

I hope you enjoy this change in season as much as I do! - Jill

Mom’s Pumpkin Bars:

Ingredients Bars:

4 eggs

1 & 2/3 c. white sugar

2 c. All purpose flour (I usually use Krusteaz GF flour)

1 c. oil

2 c. cooked pumpkin or 15 oz can of Pumpkin

1 tsp. baking soda

`1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon (measure with your heart)

1/4 tsp cloves (measure with your heart)

(A little Nutmeg and ginger are good too - but mom never used them)

Directions Bars:

Preheat oven to 350*F. Beat eggs and sugar in mixer bowl. Add oil and mix more. Add pumpkin and beat until light and fluffy.

Add mixture of flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves and mix well.

Spread in ungreased 10X15 inch baking pan. Bake for 25 mins until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan.

Cream Cheese Icing:

(Sometimes we’d just sprinkle some confectioner sugar on the bars instead of icing)

Ingredients:

1/4 stick soften butter or margarine

4 oz Cream Cheese softened

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 lb package of confectioner sugar

Icing instructions:

Cream butter, vanilla, and cream cheese w/ mixer. Slowly add in the confectioner sugar.

Spread over cooled bars/cake.

We like them best kept in the refrigerator and slightly chilled. Enjoy!