Our Umbrian farmhouse had apparently lovely bowls of autumnal fare including squashes, gourds and pumpkins. Sarah painstakingly prepared them, doing a lot of peeling and de-seeding. Unfortunately there was an ornamental pumpkin in the display. Have you ever eaten a gordo ornamentale?
As the cards fell, I haven’t either. Three out of five of us got the full experience. There is often a lot in the woof and warp of life’s rich tapestry to be savoured but, take it from the three that did, eating a cooked ornamental pumpkin is best avoided. They were a sorry sight in the morning. When our housekeeper came to call, Sarah mentioned what had happened. Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk couldn’t have laughed louder as she chopped up the poisoned mushrooms for her father-in-law’s omelette in Shostakovich’s opera.