Linda Hall
Have you seen the price of pumpkin in the supermarket?
Crikey, anyone would think we lived in a region where the gourd was a rare sight.
It's not really pumpkin season and come autumn you will be able to buy three squash for $2, but it amazes me that one supermarket is offering this staple in thousands of people's diet for $6.99 a kilo.
To me, pumpkin has always been a cheap vegetable, often used in times of need to fill up plates and bellies.
As a kid I couldn't stand it. Now I love it - it's funny how your tastes change.
Pumpkin has come a long way - who would have thought 20 years ago that we would be making roast vegetable salads. Pumpkin was roasted or boiled back then, that was it.
Now it's grated, grilled, served with feta or fennel - actually, you name it. It really is versatile.
Thanks to pumpkins I watched my first black and white television programme.
My father, who worked fulltime, had a pumpkin patch at a mate's place.
I remember picking up pumpkins as a child and putting them on a huge trailer.
It was from their sale, along with those of walnuts and grapefruit from trees at our home, that dad was able to buy our first television, my mother's first car, a Morris 1000 ( the car in which I learned to drive) and carpet for the lounge. Not all in one season, obviously, but from money saved over the years.
Now here's a thought. The beggars who have reportedly been harassing people at the Marewa shops and Clive Square in Napier could use their time in a more productive fashion.
Land in Hawke's Bay which once had state houses on it is just begging for something to be done to it. While the Government makes up its mind what that will be, surely it can be utilised.
So when those beggars sit around with their hands out, why not put a spade or hoe in them? They could dig a garden.
Now is the perfect time to plant pumpkins, potatoes, in fact all manner of vegetables. Grow some tomatoes, sell them at the markets or at the gate.
Imagine the satisfaction they would get from earning their own money and how much better they would feel from all that useful exercise, digging and weeding.
People who grow their own fruit and vegetables, even if it's only a few lettuce, know how satisfying it is to harvest something they have tended.
I was amazed to see a sign at Kmart in Hastings stating "No Begging". This problem really is getting out of hand.
Someone said they were at a garage recently and a man was going from car to car asking for money because he had run out of petrol.
I would happily give money to help someone in genuine need but this chap was seen going backwards and forwards to a car parked behind the garage.
Some in our community need help but as far as I can tell they are not the ones on the streets, intimidating people.
• Linda Hall is Hawke's Bay Today assistant editor.