Pumpkin… a versatile vegetable.
- Pumpkins are also known as ‘winter squash’ depending on where you live, and are part of the Cucurbita genus, which also includes gourds and summer squash.
- Pumpkins are typically roundish-flat with indented stripes, have thick skins that allows them to be stored longer than summer squash, and generally deep orange to strong yellow, but sometimes red, green, greenish blue, cream or white, in colour.
- Pumpkins are from the family Cucurbitaceae, which is the family of gourds, and are mostly native to Central America, especially Mexico.
- Pumpkins are generally eaten cooked, and can be served as a cooked vegetable, or be made into soup, puree, baked goods like bread, or a sweet pie.
- Pumpkins are commonly carved, and lighted, to make Jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween, or made into pie for Thanksgiving celebrations in the United States.
- Pumpkins grown on large vines, usually on the ground, and once a fruit has matured it will generally weigh between 2.7 to 8.2 kilograms (6 to 18 pounds), depending on the species.
- ‘Pumpkin’ came from the word ‘pepon’, meaning ‘large melon’ in Greek.
- Pumpkin weighing competitions are common across the globe, with a world record set in 2012 for the heaviest pumpkin ever grown, being 911.3 kilograms (2009 pounds) in mass, and was grown by Ron Wallace from Rhode Island, United States.
- Pumpkins are made up of approximately 90% water and are extremely high in vitamin A, and a good source of vitamin C.
- The flowers of pumpkin plants are sometimes eaten, and the seeds are commonly consumed as a snack, and they can also be ground into meal or flour and used in baking.
Bibliography:
Curcubita, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita
Pumpkins, n.d, Hospitality Services Group, http://www.hsgpurchasing.com/Articles/pumpkin.htm
