No one knows for sure just where or when humans stumbled on pumpkins. But they are part of our lives and not just for pies or at Halloween! Gardeners and farmers know that pumpkins are easy to grow and are good to eat.
Pumpkins belong to the gourd or Cucurbit (Cucurbita kew-KUR-bi-tuh) family of plants. This group includes cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and their close cousins, the squashes. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a super-large pumpkin and a winter squash. Pumpkin and (winter) squash pies taste almost the same!
Early farmers and gardeners soon figured out that pumpkins keep well over the winter. They made good food when there was sometimes very little else to eat. You could say that pumpkins were one of the first health foods.
We know now that pumpkins are also very healthy to eat. The inside or meat is full of vitamin A, which is good for eyes, skin, teeth and bones, and vitamin C, which helps our bodies fight infections. Pumpkin meat can be cooked or roasted. We can use cooked pumpkin to make pumpkin butter, cookies, breads, puddings or pies. Or, we can mash it up and eat pumpkin like potatoes.
Pumpkins have been grown so long that we do not know exactly where they started. Plant explorers cannot find pumpkins or plants that look like pumpkins growing in their natural habitat. The wild form of pumpkin no longer exists.
Some scientists say that perhaps pumpkins came from Asia. Maybe they did, but maybe they did not! Scientists do know that pumpkins grew on the American continent in prehistoric times. Pumpkins, along with squashes, corn, and lima beans, were among the main foods grown by Native Americans before the arrival of Columbus.
Now people grow pumpkins almost everywhere in the world. How did so many different groups of people get to know about pumpkins? Some people love pumpkins so much they try to grow them almost everywhere. And, they teach others about pumpkins. Perhaps they give some seeds to other farmers.
Tim Udelhofen and his pumpkin patch in Baghdad, Iraq (2005) is a good example of one person showing others how pumpkins grow and what they look like. Tim is in Iraq with the U.S. Army. Tim and his wife have a garden at their home in Atlanta, Georgia. However, he never grew pumpkins there.
Tim asked his Mom to send some pumpkin seeds to him in Iraq. He found out how to grow them by exploring web sites. Tim used information he found at The Pumpkin Nook. This is the site where I found Tim's pumpkin story. Tim also sent pictures of his pumpkin patch to The Pumpkin Nook to share.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Go To Page: 1 2
