Pumpkins

Pumpkins come in different colors. Orange is the most common color, but they can be white, red, yellow, green, tan and even blue! They are a member of the gourd family, just like squashes.

Pumpkins grow from seeds into a vine plant with large leaves. Flowers grow which need to be fertilized by bees. Then the fruit develops and grows bigger in the hot weather.

• Seeds grow inside a pumpkin. Each pumpkin can have up to 200 seeds inside it.
• Pumpkins are actually fruits, not vegetables. They have seeds (like tomatoes and cucmbers).
• Over 80% of the pumpkin is water.
• Native Americans dried stips of pumpkins and wove them into mats. 
• Pumpkins were once recommended as a cure for freckles and a remedy for snake bites.
• All pumpkins are edible, but some varieties are sweeter than others.
• Jim Bryson of Ormstown, Quebec in Canada is the world record holder for this year. On October 15, 2011 he brought his 1818.5 pound pumpkin, to the Prince Edward County Pumpkinfest in Wellington, Ontario in Canada.
• The folks in New Bremen, Ohio, baked a HUGE pumpkin pie. Their 3,699 pound pie is a world record.

 

• http://www.allaboutpumpkins.com/history.html
• http://urbanext.illinois.edu/pumpkins/history.cfm
• http://www.mercednutrition.org/Uploaded_Documents%5CHOTM-OCT-PUMPKINS.pdf