Disclaimer: I received a travel stipend and am paid to write about Pumpkinferno by The Great Waterway. This is one of two articles. The articles will also appear on The Great Waterway blog. I chose and organized my own itinerary and all opinions are my own. All photography is my own.

Remember when my family and I got to visit Pumpkinferno at Upper Canada Village? Well, with all those pumpkins serving as inspiration, The Great Waterway asked me to create a recipe inspired by the Pumpkinferno event.

Looking at thousands of pumpkins arranged in beautiful installations will inspire you to cook a whole cookbook’s worth of fall recipes. I prefer savoury to sweet when it comes to pumpkin and pasta is often a favourite in my house.

Combining mushrooms with the pumpkin makes this meal filling and evokes a wonderful feeling of fall. The colours look great together and my kids loved it (my son picked out the pumpkin, but I know he wasn’t able to avoid all of it). You can make this with your favourite type of pumpkin or squash and your choice of mushrooms.

Disclaimer: I received a travel stipend and am paid to write about Pumpkinferno by The Great Waterway. This is one of two articles. The articles will also appear on The Great Waterway blog. I chose and organized my own itinerary and all opinions are my own. All photography is my own.

Disclaimer: I received a travel stipend and am paid to write about Pumpkinferno by The Great Waterway. This is one of two articles. The articles will also appear on The Great Waterway blog. I chose and organized my own itinerary and all opinions are my own. All photography is my own.

Even though Pumpkinferno is only in its second year, the event is definitely considered a huge success for Upper Canada Village. With 35,000 visitors in their first year, they were looking for ways to improve the festival, making the family-friendly event an even better way to get into the Halloween spirit.

This was the first year we attended and we were lucky enough to  be able to have a guided tour with the manager of customer service and corporate communications. This year the festival uses almost half of the Upper Canada Village space, allowing for crowds to spread out more and giving everyone a chance to admire the multiple installations, featuring close to 7,000 carved pumpkins.

If you attended last year, you’ll recognize installations, but the route has changed and things are set up differently and in a different order. A brand new exhibit called House of Horoscopes, featuring more than 1,000 carved pumpkins in a stunning overhead pumpkin-carved skyscape of stars, constellations and the signs of the zodiac, is the new showcase display of the event.

All the pumpkins (which are faux) were carved by college and university students enrolled in arts programs. They started working on the event in May of this year and carved pumpkins all summer. In addition to the faux pumpkins a rotation of 800 real carved pumpkins are part of the tour – these pumpkins were carved by students in the area and are rotated in over the weeks of the event since they wouldn’t last the full time the festival is on.

While we had the advantage to enter the event without lining up, be aware that lines are long since the event only opens at 7pm. If you can manage to get there later, you won’t have to line up. You can also buy tickets in advance to avoid ticket line-up. We found parking to be really easy and had no issues finding a spot. Since we did attend right at opening hour, the first wave of people was quite intense – meaning we had to keep a close eye on our kids in order not to lose them. Once things spread out a little it was easier to navigate the space.

My kids both loved the pumpkin installations and loved to follow some of the search/count instructions found in the displays. My son has a tendency to want to touch things and run off ahead, so we had to manage that, but going back to the beginning of the walk before leaving, allowed all of us to see the first displays with less people.

As an adult I really enjoyed the event as well – My favourite were the luminary type pumpkins hung in all the trees. I think it’s a great way to extend the season for this historic location and to get into the Halloween spirit without being too scary. It was a special treat for our kids to stay up late and we had a great time.Festivals and Events Ontario named Pumpkinferno Ontario’s Best New Event earlier this spring, and it is one of three finalists for the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario award for Tourism Event of the Year. You can visit the Pumpkinferno festival at Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg, Ontario from from October 5th to November 3rd, 2013 – 7pm to 10pm on select nights.  You can buy tickets in advance.

Disclaimer: I received a travel stipend and am paid to write about Pumpkinferno by The Great Waterway. This is one of two articles. The articles will also appear on The Great Waterway blog. I chose and organized my own itinerary and all opinions are my own. All photography is my own.