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Everything Pumpkin: from the fruit to recipes, festivals and traditions
Carved Jack-o’-Lantern pumpkin
Fall Pumpkin exhibit in Seegraben, Switzerland
Yes pumpkins are back! At least one good thing about Fall season.
I love the colors, the shapes and the tasty pumpkins.
Even on a grayish day, a balcony, front porch or a table decorated with pumpkins in a pot or basket can transform your day and give you back your smile.
In Switzerland, pumpkins have already been on display in the stores since the last week of August. It was still warm out when I went looking for watermelons in our large local supermarket. They had been replaced by a display of pumpkins. Although I missed my weekly watermelon, I was not too disappointed to see once again these orange pumpkins stacked on an old chariot.
The origin of the word pumpkin:
Funny but while looking for a melon, I came back with a pumpkin. There is a connection between the two as the word pumpkin comes from the Greek word “pepon”, meaning large melon!
How did it become pumpkin? Over the years it was transformed first by the French, then the English and finally the Americans gave it its new name. Something, which started as “pepon”, went into “pompon”, “pompion” and finally into pumpkin. It is the explorer Jacques Cartier who first talked about the large melons he saw while visiting North America in 1584.
If you thought there was only a few sorts of pumpkins, you are far from the count. The number of pumpkins is countless; there are hundreds of them.
Let’s look at the various types of pumpkins:
- Giant pumpkins
- Small pumpkins for decoration
- Stock pumpkins for Jack-o’-Lantern and feeding animals
- Cheese pumpkins to eat like Pie Pumpkin or Sweet Pumpkin
Close up on pumpkins
Pumpkins good for Jack-o’-lanterns: Aladin, Big Rock, Charisma and Rock star
Good for Pumpkin pie: Pie-A Pie
French Pumpkins: Halloween in Paris, Rouge Vif d’Etampes or Cinderella, Fairy Tales or Musque de Provence
Cinderella pumpkin or Rouge Vif d’Etampes
Facts about pumpkins:
- Pumpkins are fruits and not vegetables
- Pumpkins are mainly made of water ( 90%)
- Heaviest pumpkin grown was 1725 pounds in Ohio (2009)
- The flower and the seeds are edible
- Pumpkins have a hard shell and pulp
colorful medium size pumpkins
- They are grown everywhere except on Antarctica
- They used to be important to the American Indians who offered them to the colonists.
- Pumpkins are full of vitamine A, iron and have a lot of fiber.
- One cup of pumpkins (116 g) contains only 30 calories.
- When cut, you can keep it in your fridge for three months.
Cooking ideas:
Pumpkins not only look good but they taste good, at least I like them.
It seems I am not the only one interested in pumpkins. When you do a search on the word, you get about 28,700,000 results. It is much more than for cucumber (10,400,000) or the squash (22,900,000), two other fruits from the cucurbits family.
What can you make with it? The first thing that comes to my mind is soup.
Take a pumpkin, cut it into pieces and cook it like you would for mash potatoes. When it is done, mix it and add salt and crème fraiche. It is delicious when well done. I recommend not buying an entire pumpkin as it is quite hard to cut it. Buy a quarter at a time if you can.
Pumpkin soup on the opening of the pumpkin exhibit in Seegraben (Switzerland)
The first record of a pumpkin pie recipe was in the French book of Francois la Varenne in 1651 in the True French Cook. The British author, Hannah Wooley also wrote a book mentioning a pumpkin pie recipe in 1670. Another recipe was found in 1796 in an American cookbook this time, called What’s cooking America: History of pumpkin pie.
You can also bake cakes, cookies, breads, pastas, make stews and sauces. You can even eat it raw in salads.
Recently, a friend of mine brought me a bottle of Kurbis Sekt (sparkling wine with pumpkin) and it was delicious. Try it out if you can. It was mixed with grape juice.
Halloween origins, traditions and Jack-o’-Lantern:
Pumpkin is often associated with Halloween celebrated on October 31st. What do people do on Halloween? …..they carve pumpkins.
I tried once to carve a Jack-o-Lantern. It is not that easy as you need the right tools. It is something children love doing and there is often competitions for the nicest carved pumpkins. Check out if your town offers pumpkin carving for Halloween.
It comes from the Irish and the Scots who brought the Celtic tradition to the United States and to Canada in the early 19th century.
Display of pumpkins at the Jucker Farm in Seegraben
At first, in Ireland they did not use pumpkins but other vegetables such as potatoes, rutabagas or turnips. They carved the pumpkin and put a light in it to scare away the evil spirits.
But why Jack O’ Lantern? It came from the legend of Stingy Jack who had invited the Devil to drink. Jack tried to play a trick on the Devil. The devil did not like it and only left Jack a piece of coal to have light in the dark. Jack carved a turnip and placed the light into it.
For the last 15 years, the French have been celebrating more and more Halloween. More stores have pumpkins for this special Holiday and many companies or homeowners decorate their place with pumpkins.
In Switzerland pumpkins and pumpkin farms have become popular only 10 years ago in 2000’s with Halloween. In Zurich in 2009, 50 tons of pumpkins were used for the holiday celebration’s bash. The number of pumpkins sold went from 230 tons in 1991 to 10,000 in 2000.
About Thanksgiving holiday:
Another holiday associated with pumpkins is Thanksgiving. Some research shows that the pilgrims celebrating could not have eaten pumpkin pie during the first thanksgiving in 1622. It came later in the mid 1620’s when flour, butter and ovens did not lack.
Today almost every American eats pumpkin pie with their Thanksgiving dinner. At the beginning, pumpkin were used to make the crust and were not used as a filling like today.
The Juckerfarm and the pumpkins:
The most successful pumpkin farm in Switzerland is in Seegraben near Zurich. It is owned by the family Jucker. Two brothers Beat and Martin decided to give a try to the pumpkins in the late 1990’s when they opened the Jucker Farmart AG. A decade later the business is booming and is always full of people, especially for the pumpkin display.
Every year since 2000 the Swiss and European pumpkin competition is held. I was there last year for the occasion and it was really a big event. The growers of the biggest pumpkin had to cut it in half with a saw. Then all the seeds were removed and counted.
A winning pumpkin (2009, Seegraben competition)
Every year the farmers try to grow the biggest pumpkin to beat the American World record. A Frenchman had a pumpkin of 730 kg which is 1650 pounds. So maybe this year on October 3d the record will be beat in Seegraben.
At the Jucker farm they organize many events with pumpkins and also exhibits. Last year it was with various animals and this year it is all about dinosaurs. At night 3 days a week, the pumpkins are lit up and it is quite beautiful.
Look at my photos of the squashes on display at the Jucker Farm in Seegraben:
Activities for kids:
If your children or yourself is into crafts there are countless activities you could do for Halloween with pumpkins. Check out some books at the library or some websites. For the Disney Family and Fun website click here For another site for children and teachers to learn about pumpkins and give you ideas about crafts. Click here
Carving a pumpkin:
Have you ever tried carving a pumpkin? It is never too late. Here is what your pumpkin could look like for Halloween. If your child wants to do it, the best is to do it with him or her as you need to use a sharp knife.
Festivals of pumpkins around the world:
What about visiting a pumpkin farm or pumpkin festival this Fall? Here is a list of famous ones. In America: Jack-o’-Lantern in Providence, Rhode Island: Oct. 7th-31st 20th pumpkin festival in Keene, New Hampshire: Oct. 16th Great Pumpkin festival in Phoenix, Arizona: Oct. 21st- Oct. 24th Camp Sunshine Pumpkin Festival in Freeport, Maine: Oct. 30th In Europe: Seegraben Pumpkin-Dinosaria Festival: Aug. 27th-Nov7th Ludwigsburg, in Germany: Pumpkin display from Sept. 3rd. Nov. 6th Seegraben Swiss Pumpkin Competition on Octber 3rd at 1:30 p.m.
Seegraben Family for families: Oct. 23d from 2pm. to 7 p.m. Europa Park in Germany: Oct. 1st-Nov 7th with Halloween Festival (Oct30th-Nov7th) Festival in Alsace in Sentheim: Oct. 25th Festival in Alsace in Riedisheim: Oct. 27th
Have you bought your pumpkins yet to decorate your doorsteps? A little color won’t hurt this Fall.
