By Barbara McAlister
Word of the Day: Pumpkin
It’s that time of year when everything turns to pumpkin. The word pumpkin comes from an ancient Greek word meaning melon, but it’s actually a squash, a part of the botanical family that includes cucumbers. Every part of a pumpkin is edible, including the flowers and seeds, and they are grown all over the world except Antarctica. Even Alaska grows pumpkins. But the self-proclaimed pumpkin capital of the world is Morton, Ill., home of Libby’s, the vegetable company.
In 2017 pumpkin-flavored sales totaled more than $414 million. Besides Starbuck’s popular Pumpkin Latte, other pumpkin products include dog food, deodorant, cereals, yogurt, Jello, candy, kettle corn, beer and even a limited-edition Spam.
Pumpkins are 90 percent water and record large pumpkins can weigh more than 1,200 pounds. The Irish brought the tradition of pumpkin carving to America when they immigrated to the U.S. Pumpkins did not exist in Ireland, where ancient Celtic cultures hollowed turnips and placed embers in them on All Hallow’s Eve to ward off evil spirits. The Irish in America found pumpkins plentiful and much easier to carve.
Pumpkins and other squash were some of the first crops colonists planted when settlers arrived in America in 1621. Apples were not known in the colonies until John Winthrop, a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ordered apple seedlings from England in 1631. Pies, a traditional dish in early colonial times, were mostly savory and generally a mixture of sliced pumpkins and other vegetables baked in pastry crusts, not the sweet dessert we think of today. It’s hard to picture New England without apples, but during the first decade of the Plymouth Colony pumpkins ruled. It’s arguable that the expression “as American as apple pie” should really be “as American as pumpkin pie.”
