By Mike Pound

mpound@joplinglobe.com

Taylor Mansfield is not too concerned with this year’s canned pumpkin shortage. No canned pumpkin is good canned pumpkin, as far as the 11-year-old Carthage girl is concerned.

Taylor’s mother, Jennifer, has sort of spoiled her daughter. When Taylor, her twin sister, Katie, and older brother, Will, were much younger, a relative of their mother’s brought a pumpkin cake made with real pumpkin to a family gathering.

“Everyone went crazy over the cake and so I started baking with fresh pumpkin too,” Mansfield said. “I first made a pumpkin spice cake with a cream cheese icing and everyone went nuts.”

And, except for rare occasions, Mansfield has been making baked goods using fresh pumpkin ever since. But Taylor is not the only Mansfield who goes ga-ga for the real thing.

“They all say, ‘Don’t make it with the canned stuff,’” Mansfield said. “They also like the way it (the fresh pumpkin) makes the house smell.”

About that pumpkin shortage: Area grocery folks report that people should be able to find canned pumpkin mixes, but they need to buy it when they see it. A spokesperson with Price Cutter in Joplin said the store is still receiving shipments of canned pumpkins and expects they will throughout the holiday season, but the supplies will be limited compared to previous years.

Locally, however, there has been no shortage of fresh pumpkins. Tim Green owns Shoal Creek Garden and Greenhouse near Galena. He said abundant rains this spring and summer resulted in a bumper crop for most area pumpkin growers. If anything, Green said, there might have been too much moisture.

“I had some pumpkins that were almost floating in water before I could pick them,” he said.

Green, pointed to a row of small pumpkins — known as Neon pumpkins — at his stand at the Webb City Farmers Market as ideal for baking.

Mansfield said she also prefers smaller “pie” pumpkins for baking. A typical small pumpkin, she said, will yield two to three cups. And while it may sound difficult, Mansfield said, baking with fresh pumpkin is not that difficult.

“That hardest part is probably cutting the pumpkin in half,” she said. “Sometimes the shell can be really hard.”

Mansfield said if a pumpkin shell is too hard she will zap it in the microwave for a few minutes to soften it.

Once cut in half, Mansfield removes the seeds and the pumpkin “string.” She then places the two pieces onto an edged, cookie sheet containing about half an inch of water and bakes the pumpkin at 350 degrees for an hour. The water steams the pumpkin, which makes it nice and soft, Mansfield said.