Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for November 01, 2015

Got to be them trick-or-treat trickers.

Ouch. Careful what you say to Alix, Val!

Are there people out there making smashed pumpkin/old jack-o-lanterns into pie? Seems to be a running theme.

Not fond of pumpkin pie, but I’ve made them, on request…and I’d not use a pumpkin that’s been cut into, scraped inside, and sitting outdoors for several days… ick.From the first day, they start to shrivel and get soft, sometimes even to get moldy,,,and the edible surfaces have been exposed to dirt, bugs and maybe candle smoke,They’re on sale now. Just buy a fresh one to cook!

Wrong kind of pumpkin. The pie type is smaller and a much thicker shell. Anyone who ever tried this would know better.

My pie comes from Marie Callendar

Jan, I respect your decision to retire, just know there are many, many of us on this side who loved your story line - and wonder how all the changes worked out - grandma, the cop-stepfather, the baby, and your great girls. Thanks.

Um, Val? If it’s already scooped and carved to a face, it’s likely empty and can’t be made into anything but garbage…

I miss my daily Stone Soup. I understand and respect your choice but as a loyal fan…boo-hoo. There’s so much more about their lives that I was looking forward to you telling us about. Maybe a book? A Pixar movie/Disney movie? Wishing you a healthy, happy retirement and thanks for all the years.

Well destroyed pumpkin not bothering Holly. Wished I started long ago with old and new.

Remind me to never eat pumpkin pie at her house! That thing was sitting there with it’s innards exposed to the elements, at ambient temperature, for at least a day. Then it had a candle, with all of it’s soot, in it for a couple of hours.Nasty! (And not in a good way!)

Better a pie than to just let the first hard freeze turn it to mush.

missing all the interaction of the family …… miss the daily mash up

Agreed Holly.

Love the artwork in this one!

Canned pumpkin is actually winter squash.

Another reason why I bring my pumpkins inside so that the idiots that come out with baseball bats can’t get at them.

I’m just glad to see that Stone Soup did not completely disappear! I do miss it during the week.

Guys, that is why a good cook has a SHARP KNIFE! You use it to trim all the exposed surfaces of the pumpkin, as well as peel it. I have made many excellent pies from used jack o lanterns.

Happy3 … me too. Though I’d rather have apple or berry or cherry anyway.

And to Roadtrip and Night-Gaunt. .. while it’s a rather moot point, an outdoor, carved pumpkin being unusable anyway. .It’s NOT “empty!”

The stuff scraped out of a jack-o-lantern is usually only seeds, fibers, and goo. .. it was never going to be part of the pie anyway. Some really fancy designs are done on pumpkins with part of the flesh removed, to make thinner walls. …. but they barely hold up for day without collapsing.

I sit here amused with the comments about not using “jack o’ lantern pumpkins” as sources for pie. My grandmammy used regular pumpkins for pie for decades. They have a richer, more textural taste than that pureed pap in the cans. I will either roast a whole pumpkin or cut them up and par boil them….with the spices you can’t tell except real pumpkins have much better pie thickness

thought we were going to get strip from the begining

not on Sunday, I think that is the only day it will be new.

It’s a little too late for that.

A local radio host this morning said that he passed a few pumpkins that had apparently failed to look both ways before crossing the street and consequently suffered fatal accidents.

I love how the two bats in the upper left-hand corner make a smiley!

There is a church youth that sell pumpkins for fundraisers, just when ready to sell those pumpkins suffered $500 loss of revenue when unknown destroyed those pumpkins.

WE MAKE JACK-O-LANTERN PIE EVERY YEAR. ITS WONDERFUL. BETTER THAN ANY PIE YOU CAN BUY

Your strip was what got me going in the mornings, I am so going to miss it.

Our local zoo will take the old pumpkins and throw them into the appropriate animal cages for a late Halloween snack.

I miss Stone soup I get up every morning and hurry to read the new days happenings. No other comic strip can take its place.

It’s the Pumpkin Equivalent of going to live on that Wonderful Farm Up North with all the Other Dogs…