Column: As October nears, we pause to reflect on all things pumpkin

I had my first pumpkin latte the other day.

It’s all downhill from here.

The inexorable decline of summer into fall has begun.

I like autumn. In September and October, the combination of crisp temperatures and sunny skies is wonderful. It is my favorite kind of weather. But it’s hard not to notice that the days are growing shorter.

The dogs and I have enjoyed an after-dinner session on the front porch every night for three months. Tonight, I looked outside and saw dusk. We went out anyway, because I felt badly that they had been locked in a single room all afternoon as a washing machine repairman did his work.

But once we got outside, I realized it was raining. I was wearing a sweater—cotton, but still. The rain brushed onto the porch. Even Quinn, who loves the front porch because it gives him the opportunity to bark at passersby, was ready to go back in after 15 minutes.

It’s just going to get worse. November is a dark month. Even if the weather remains mild, as it sometimes does, late dawns and early twilights are the rule. It’s nothing to look forward to.

The Farmer’s Almanac is adding fuel to the fires we’ll surely be building this winter. It says we’re in for another doozy.

This is why I find myself in such a quandary this time of year. I love the taste of pumpkin and the stereotypical images of the New England fall. But I hate what it portends.

I regularly rant about the retail world’s insistence on promoting holidays months before the actual event. However, I have to admit that actual pumpkins arrived at my local farmers’ market before I saw pumpkin ale on sale.

It must be because there’s not much time to spare between back-to-school and Halloween. The school drumbeat starts in late July, presumably because national chains have to keep ahead of southerners who may return the third week of August. Never mind that they alienate all New Englanders, who don’t want to think about such things until the third week of August.

The sales on notebooks, pens and pencils have to continue until after Labor Day. That’s the traditional start of the school year, though few districts seem to care anymore. Anyway, the Halloween promotions, which grow by leaps and bounds every year, don’t get the customary two-month lead time that other holidays enjoy. They only get a month and a half.

I have witnessed, over my lifetime, the evolution of Halloween into a major holiday, and one that involves adults. I find this a strange trend. What does “Happy Halloween” mean when you say it to a 50-year-old?

This conundrum just adds to my list of autumn woes.

Pumpkin flavor has exploded in recent years, too. (Now there’s a visual.) Was it so long ago that pumpkin only appeared in the American diet as pie or bread? Now the list is endless. Try “Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Cereal.” There are pumpkin spice M&Ms, Pop-Tarts and even Pringles. Eww.

It seems that most beer makers have their own seasonal brews. These include Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat, Shipyard Pumpkinseed, Cisco Pumple Drumpkin, Heavy Seas The Great Pumpkin, Terrapin Pumpkinfest, Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, and likely many more.

An article in the Detroit Free Press parses the trend. Pumpkin pie, like apple, represents the best of American culture. Says Cindy Ott, author of Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon: “It represents a sense of goodness, natural abundance and old values that people think are good.”

I am not imagining the exponential growth in pumpkin-flavored products. From 2005 to 2015, they increased from six to 14.5 percent of American restaurants’ menu items, the article states. And guess what? The northeast loves pumpkin spice more than anyone else.

I suppose it’s possible that drinking a pumpkin spice latte while munching a pumpkin spice Pepperidge Farm Milano may substitute for such traditional fall activities as visiting harvest festivals, apple picking and leaf peeping. Everyone has time to stop at Dunkin’s for one of their myriad pumpkin products: Muffins, doughnuts, Munchkins, coffees, lattes…I feel myself turning orange just thinking about it.

Of course, pumpkin flavoring cannot replace real pumpkins as the source of seasonal celebration. Or can it?

CBS News recently reported that pumpkin sales have been in a slide since 2010. Why? Apparently Americans feel carving a pumpkin is too much work.

It can be time-consuming, it’s true. But I see it as one way to take my mind off the fact that while fall can be glorious, winter is just around the corner.