BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PUMPKIN ice-cream, pumpkin flour, pumpkin drink and pumpkin candy are just a tip of the iceberg of what was displayed and sampled on Thursday (Apr. 14) at the Agriculture Department’s Agro-Processors’ Display.
The event, which took place at the Department’s Conference Room, was aimed at promoting agro-processing and sensitizing the public on the main ingredient for this year’s Restaurant Week Challenge – Pumpkin.
Some 14 agro-processors and hotels/restaurants were invited to participate and showcase their edibles. They were however asked to, as much as they could, ensure that their presentations focused on pumpkin.
Pumpkin lovers were in for more than a treat as the variety of mouth-watering creations were simply mind-blowing and the choices seemed endless.
Although we have heard of pumpkin ice-cream and pumpkin soup, those which were offered for sampling were delicious, to say the least.
On the more creative side however, one agro-processor was offering what he called a fruit roll-up. It was made primarily of pumpkin and as he put it, it is a perfect substitute for the traditional sugar-laced snacks. Did I mention that there was also a pumpkin sorrel variety of this creation? Délicieux!
Another agro-processor produced a more savory dish that she called her “pumpkin breadfruit pie”, which was indeed delicious. And although the breadfruit played a pivotal role in the dish, the creator was skilled enough to ensure that the star of the dish, pumpkin, was not overshadowed. Magnifique!
Another agro-processor made quite an interesting cake which featured pumpkin of course, but she did an excellent job of incorporating another locally-grown fruit which, at first taste, could throw one for a loop. But once the cake is carefully examined by the taste buds, the taste of the gooseberries is detected.
Have you ever heard of pumpkin honey butter? Have you ever tasted pumpkin liquor? What about pumpkin chili? These also formed part of the day’s display and I must say, pumpkin never looked or tasted so good!
This writer took the opportunity to liaise with the organizer of the event, Alphonso Clarke of the Agriculture Department, who said it met the set goals.
“I think we were very successful in that endevour. We actually invited agro processors – both those cooperatives as well as our local government-owned agro-processing unit to participate in this event to showcase all the value-added commodities that they produced, but most importantly, because this year pumpkin has been selected as our main ingredient for Restaurant Week. And so we encourage them to have some sort of value-added commodities that were made from pumpkin and they had a variety like pumpkin flour, cake, drink, rolls. There was a variety of commodities on display which were excellent, tasty and awesome.”
