By Abraham Freeman-Moore
November 6, 2024
When you hear the word pumpkin, what do you imagine?
The image that instantly conjures up in my mind is an orange sphere with indentations running down forming the ribs. The stem is gray-brown, and the orange skin is multidimensional, with lighter, almost yellow areas paired with areas of burnt brick.
Pumpkin patches are prolific in western Washington, specifically in Puyallup which is about an hour's drive south from Seattle. As the tires of our car inched forward every couple of minutes the line of cars grew behind us as we all waited patiently to pull into the Spooner Farms pumpkin patch parking lot. If it wasn’t for my wife, I would have probably visited the first pumpkin patch I saw. However, like most of us, she gravitates to what she knows. She had grown up going to this pumpkin patch and others in the area. Now, this was my preferred place to pick a pumpkin. It was my second year visiting the patch.
Once in the parking lot, we were directed by the Pierce County Sheriffs to makeshift rows of parking in the field. It was a surprise to me that the patch had law enforcement present. It made sense though, the throngs of families were in full force.
We grabbed our coats and headed for the entrance. Just on the other side of the entrance about 30ish wheelbarrows that were painted in a teal green, they were tipped on their ends. They stood in about ten rows. We passed by without grabbing one, we wanted to look around first. To our right sat a corridor of food trucks. Some sold hot dogs, corn dogs, and nachos. Others sold coffee, there were two coffee trucks situated on separate sides of the corridor. In my mind they were battling it out, to see who could attract more customers. The one on our right seemed to be winning. Moseying back down the line of food we came to the rows of pumpkins. I would like to say pumpkin patch, but this would be inaccurate. The pumpkins had been picked and most likely cleaned. They all seemed to gleam in the Washington sun. Which let me tell you is not strong at this time of year. As they sat in a field of bare earth there was not a pumpkin plant in sight.
When I think of the purpose of a pumpkin two things come to mind, carving them and eating pumpkin pies. I love the latter more than the former. Pumpkins not surprisingly started as a food source. This versatile vegetable comes from “North America about 9,000 years ago” (Oliveira). There are two accounts of the origin of the pumpkin pie. The first information I collected comes from the University of Missouri’s website. It’s reported that pumpkins were originally eaten by cutting them into ribbons and were roasted over the fire. Eventually, someone decided the pumpkin would be kept whole and poured in “milk spices, and honey.” Admittedly this sounds simple though outlandish to me personally. I only found one reference to this specific origin (Trinklein).
The second origin story of pumpkin pie is listed in multiple sources. The pumpkin pie started like an apple pie. What I mean by this is that the pumpkin was placed in the pie in slices like apples are done in an apple pie today. A lady by the name of Amelia Simmons morphed this pumpkin pie into the one that we all know today (Terrell). Though, I am curious to know what a chunky pumpkin pie would taste like. Maybe I will attempt to make one, or if you do, let me know!
As my wife and I walked up the isles of pumpkins we realized that they were all too big for our needs. They were all perfect for carving, though we were in the market for something smaller. One that could be painted and didn't take up too much space in our one-bedroom apartment. The plan was to have a pumpkin get-together with two of her siblings. So we moved from the rows of sun-soaked pumpkins to the rows of plastic gray bins that sat under the white pop-up tents. Here we found an assortment of pumpkins. As I walked up to each bin to pier in I was pleasantly surprised each time I did. Some pumpkins were the color of lemons hence the name Lemonade Pumpkin. Some pumpkins looked like pumpkins that looked like they were pulled out of a fairytale, hence the name Cinderella Pumpkin. Others had dark green growths sprouting like tumors from their smooth orange surfaces, these were called Knucklehead Pumpkins.
My personal favorite was the Grizzly Bear Pumpkins. They were a color that was neither bright nor dark. The color radiated calmness. For whatever reason, I couldn’t pinpoint the color. I eventually did Google search.
Ah, the color was “caramel.”
This was the description on the Harris Seeds website (Pumpkin). The single question that continued to percolate through my thoughts was how are there so many different types of pumpkins? Well, the simple answer is that humans like different-looking pumpkins and thus selectively bred for them.
Not to get too far into the weeds but there are technically three different “species” of pumpkins. The genius is Cucurbita. They include “C. pepo, C. maxima, [and] C.moschata.” If you remember anything from this it's that you can eat and carve all of them. Some are just better than others for the selected purposes.
The last tidbit of knowledge I would like to leave you with is that pumpkins are both vegetables and fruits (Ellison). I’ll leave you to Google that one.
We fetched a wheel barrel and gently sat the pumpkins, butternut squash, and kabocha squash in. To find the cost of our haul, we placed the wheel barrel on a large scale. Visiting a pumpkin patch or farm can sometimes seem repetitive because you know what you are going to generally see and do there. The exciting part to me is discovering the new varieties of pumpkins that plant breeders can dream up.
References
Ellison, Jillian. “Going Pumpkin Picking? Explore the Many Faces of Fall’s Iconic Fruit.” Purdue University - College of Agriculture, Purdue University, College of Agriculture, 26 Oct. 2023, ag.purdue.edu/news/2023/10/going-pumpkin-picking-explore-the-many-faces-of-falls-iconic-fruit.html.
Oliveira, Rosane. “10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Pumpkins.” University of California, 25 Oct. 2018, www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-pumpkins#:~:text=Scientists%20believe%20that%20pumpkins%20originated,food%20staple%20among%20Native%20Americans.
“Pumpkin Grizzly Bear F1 Seed.” Harris Seeds, www.harrisseeds.com/products/12851-pumpkin-grizzly-bear-f1?srsltid=AfmBOopopXfNvCtJK4eg6bL_V2y6nBg_r3Pf3EE6feAS8LR4pD1u62ke&variant=39989521612872. Accessed 4 Nov. 2024.
Terrell, Ellen. “A Brief History of Pumpkin Pie in America.” The Library of Congress, 20 Nov. 2017, blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2017/11/a-brief-history-of-pumpkin-pie-in-america/.
Trinklein, David. “Pumpkin: A Brief History.” Integrated Pest Management University of Missouri, 4 Oct. 2018, ipm.missouri.edu/meg/2013/10/Pumpkin-A-Brief-History/#:~:text=Pumpkins%20have%20been%20cultivated%20since,and%20wove%20them%20into%20mats.
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