Halloween is just around the corner, and what is the first thing that pops into your head when you think about Halloween? What? Spooky stuff? Candy? No! We mean pumpkins!
So without further ado, here are some interesting pumpkin facts for you to pull out nonchalantly at the next Halloween party you attend (we can’t guarantee you’ll have any friends left after this though):
- The word “pumpkin” as we know it first made its appearance in no other than the fairytale “Cinderella” in the 17th century. Before that, they were called things like “gros melons”, “pepon” and “that orange thing that’s also delicious”.
- Pumpkins are grown on every continent except Antarctica, but the undisputed champions of pumpkin production are the US, with 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkin grown every year. 80% of which (around 800 million pumpkins) are ripe for picking in one single month of the year, that’s right, October.
- How many different varieties of pumpkins do you think exist? Come on, don’t just continue reading, guess! Okay, the correct answer is: there are 45 different varieties of pumpkin! And some of their names are amazing: Cotton Candy, Full Moon, Hooligan, Iron Man, Long Island Cheese, One Too Many, and Rock Star are all actual pumpkin names.
- Pumpkins are actually fruits and they’re also pretty good for you! They have more fiber than kale, more potassium than bananas, and are full of magnesium and iron. One cup of canned pumpkin has only a half-gram of fat and 83 calories.
- So where did the practice of carving out Jack-O’-Lanterns come from? Well, it was brought to North America by Irish immigrants who used to do the same only with turnips and potatoes in order to ward off evil spirits. Then they realized pumpkins were way more suitable for the task and the rest is history.
- Every single part of a pumpkin is edible: the skin, leaves, flowers, pulp, seeds, and stems.
Do you feel like you learned a lot of new things? Great! Now use that energy to go make some pumpkin pie. Preferably vegan. And then send us some. Thanks in advance!
