After Halloween, when our carved-out pumpkin jack-o-lanterns start to shrivel, we usually toss them into the trash or compost pile and then head to the pantry for the canned pumpkin puree to make our holiday pies, cakes and cookies. But in the Early New England settlements, colonists considered the pumpkin a staple and culinary treasure:

“For pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
 Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies
 We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon;
 If it were not for pumpkins, we should be undoon.”

Now that trick-or-treating is over, all things pumpkin leads the way to Thanksgiving and our holiday baked goodies. Here to kick things off is a deliciously moist and delicate fall favorite, The Pumpkin Roll. This tasty spice cake rolled around a sweet cream cheese filling is a lovely way to not only satisfy our sweet tooth, but to pay tribute to the pumpkin, one of the first wild plants cultivated for human consumption in America.