pumpkin - Cultivation, Chucking, Pumpkin seeds, Cooking, Pumpkin trivia

A trailing or climbing vine (Cucurbita maxima) native to America; leaves palmately-lobed; male and female flowers 12·5 cm/5 in diameter, funnel-shaped; fruit usually globular, often reaching great size and weight; rind and flesh orange, rather fibrous, surrounding numerous seeds; cultivated as a vegetable. It is also often used to make Hallowe'en lanterns by placing a candle in the hollowed-out centre, and carving a face in the rind, through which the light shines. (Family: Cucurbitaceae.)

Pumpkins grow as a gourd from a trailing vine of the genus Cucurbita Cucurbitaceae. The pumpkin varies greatly in form, being sometimes nearly globular, but more generally oblong or ovoid in shape. Pumpkins are a popular food, with their insides commonly eaten cooked and served in dishes such as pumpkin pie; Pumpkins are traditionally used to carve Jack-o'-lanterns for use as part of Halloween celebrations.

Butternut squash is called "butternut pumpkin" in Australia, and "neck pumpkin" in parts of Pennsylvania where it is commonly regarded as a pumpkin and used in similar ways to other pumpkin.

Cultivation

Pumpkins have historically been pollinated by the native squash bee Peponapis pruinosa, but this bee has declined, probably due to pesticide sensitivity, and most commercial plantings are pollinated by honeybees today.

Inadequately pollinated pumpkins usually start growing but abort before full development.

Pumpkins are grown today in the US more for decoration than for food, and popular contests continually lead growers to vie for the world record for the largest pumpkin ever grown. Growers have many techniques, often secretive, including hand pollination, removal from the vines of all but one pumpkin, and injection of fertilizer or even milk directly into the vines with a hypodermic needle.

Pumpkins have male and female flowers, the latter distinguished by the small ovary at the base of the petals.

Chucking

Pumpkin chucking is a competitive activity in which teams build various mechanical devices designed to throw a pumpkin as far as possible. Some pumpkin chuckers grow special varieties of pumpkin, which are bred and grown under special conditions intended to improve the pumpkin's chances of surviving being thrown.

Pumpkin seeds

The hulless or semi-hulless seeds of pumpkins can be roasted and eaten as a snack, similar to the sunflower seed. The seeds are often prepared by separation from orange pumpkin flesh, mixture with a generally salty sauce (Worcestershire sauce, for example), even distribution on a baking sheet, and oven-heating at a relatively low temperature for a long period of time. One of the typical pumpkin products of Austria is pumpkin seed oil.

Cooking

When ripe, the pumpkin can be boiled, baked, and roasted, or made into various kinds of pie, alone or mixed with other fruit;

Pumpkin trivia

The pumpkin is related to the zucchini (courgette). Pumpkin growers often compete to see whose pumpkins are the most massive. Festivals dedicated to the pumpkin and these competitions are relatively widespread and some form tourist attractions in their own right, for example in Half Moon Bay, California. The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,469 lb (666 kg). However, this record is being challenged by Ron Wallace of Rhode Island, who raised an alleged 1,502 pound pumpkin in 2006. Using pumpkins as lanterns at Halloween is based on an ancient Celtic custom brought to America by Irish immigrants. The city of Boston, Massachusetts currently holds the world record for most lit pumpkins in one area: 30,128, set on October 21 2006, beating out the previous record of 28,952 set in Keene, New Hampshire in 2003. Illinois produces more pumpkins than any other state in the United States; Pumpkins were among the first foods from the "New World" adopted in Europe, probably due to a European cousin: Lagenaria "Pumpkin" is sometimes used as an affectionate term, often referring to one's significant other. The pumpkin is the state fruit of New Hampshire.