The Province

Pumpkin seeds make delicious snack

Salt them before placing in 250-300F oven up to 30 minutes, then test for them for crunchines­s

- Helen Chesnut

Q My family will be hollowing out pumpkins to make jacko’-lanterns soon. If you harvest the seeds from your pumpkins for roasting, how do you do this? I’m wondering, in particular, whether it’s necessary to add oil to the seeds for roasting.

A: Most methods call for tossing or drizzling the seeds with oil. I don’t use oil. To create a crunchy and delicious snack food from raw pumpkin seeds, I simply separate the seeds from the fibres holding them in place and put them on a broad pie plate or baking sheet (not buttered or oiled).

I dust the seeds lightly with freshly grated salt and bake at 250 to 300 F for around 20 minutes. Then I loosen them and mix them up a bit, and taste-test as they continue roasting until they have the desired crunchines­s and full, nutty flavour. Q Over the course of the summer a rounded, hairy brown mass developed on a stem of one of my rose bushes. What could this be?

A: These masses, called Robin’s Pincushion in England, are caused by the rose gall wasp, a small wasp that injects a substance that causes the rose tissue to swell and form the unusual growth. Once the gall has formed, the wasp lays eggs inside it.

The galls appear in June and July, starting out pale green or red and turning brown as they age. The outer, mosslike filaments surround a cluster of hard cells that harbour tiny grubs over the winter. The larvae do not mature and emerge from the galls until spring. Species roses are most commonly affected.

Rose gall wasps do little harm, and some people find their handiwork to be fascinatin­g curiositie­s in the garden. Those who see the galls as visually offensive will choose to cut off gall-bearing stems. Bear in mind, though, that these wasps also play roles as pollinator­s and as predators of insect pests.

 ?? — ISTOCK FILES ?? After carving your jack-o-lantern, roast the seeds.
— ISTOCK FILES After carving your jack-o-lantern, roast the seeds.
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