Nothing says fall like pumpkins. We all look for them. Some buy them from the store. Some buy them from pumpkin patches. Some carve scary, ghoulish faces in our pumpkins. Others create works of art we wish we could recreate!
Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins! They are everywhere in the fall months and fall is the perfect time for these orange and bright and colorful orbs. But did you know you can eat pumpkins? Yes! Some people use the insides to make wonderfully delicious pumpkins pies that melt in your mouth and scream fall as they grace nearly every Thanksgiving table across the country. Other people meticulously clean the seeds, removing those tiny tendrils that once attached each seed to the walls of the pumpkin’s insides. Once finished, they…show more content… The pumpkin actually has a rich history. References to pumpkins date back many centuries. The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for "large melon" which is "pepon." "Pepon" was nasalized by the French into "pompon." The English changed "pompon" to "Pumpion." Shakespeare referred to the "pumpion" in his Merry Wives of Windsor. American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin." The "pumpkin" is referred to in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater and Cinderella. What a rich history the pumpkin has!
It is said that Columbus carried pumpkin seeds back with him to Europe. There they were used to feed pigs, but not as a human food source. But there is also a lot of history rooted in American Indian culture. In fact, Indians are attributed with introduced the first settlers to the many benefits of pumpkins. Indians introduced pumpkins and squashes to the Pilgrims. Pumpkins were an important food source for the pilgrims, as they stored well, which meant they would have a nutritious food source during the winter months. It is documented that pumpkins were served at the second Thanksgiving celebration. They made all sorts of things out of pumpkins, including…show more content… In fact, there are even competitions! The Ohio towns of Barnesville and Circleville each hold a festival every year, the Barnesville Pumpkin Festival and the Circleville Pumpkin Show respectively. The town of Half Moon Bay, California, holds an annual Art and Pumpkin Festival, drawing over 250,000 visitors each year and including the World Champion Pumpkin Weigh-Off. Farmers from all over the US compete to determine who can grow the heaviest pumpkin. The winning pumpkin regularly tops the scale at more than 1500 pounds. Leonardo Urena, from Napa, California, grew the winner of the 2011 Weigh-Off with a 1,704-pound Atlantic Giant, setting a new California State record. The record for the world's heaviest pumpkin was broken September 30, 2012, at the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts. Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, entered a pumpkin weighing 2,009 pounds. A few days earlier on September 27, a pumpkin grown by Steve Geddes of Boscawen, New Hampshire, weighed in at 1,843.5 pounds at the Deerfield Fair in New Hampshire. That one held the world record for just five days. Prior to that, Guinness World Records had the world's heaviest pumpkin set in 2010 by Chris Stevens, at a weight of 1,810 pounds, 8 ounces, at the Stillwater Harvest Fest in Stillwater, Minnesota.[47] The
