All You Need to Know About Pumpkins

The official bloom of Thanksgiving? The pumpkin, of course. So in honor of this noble gourd, equally agreeable embellishing a tabletop, a soup or a pie, we bring you Overnight New York’s pumpkin fast facts and show how two hotels, the Jumeirah Essex House and New York Hilton, displayed the big orange guys this year.

+ Cucurbitaceae — the family of squashes, melons and gourds from which pumpkins, like cucumbers and watermelons, hail.

+ 7000 to 5500 B.C. – the years the earliest pumpkin-related seeds date from. (They were discovered in Mexico.)

+ Pepon –the Greek word for “large melon,” believed to be the genesis for “pumpkin.”

+ 1.5 billion pounds — the amount of pumpkins produced in the US each year.

+ 1,810 pounds — the biggest pumpkin ever (certified by Guinness). An Atlantic Giant, it was grown by Chris Stevens of New Richmond, Wisconsin in 2010. Caveat: it was white, not orange.

+ Vitamin A and beta-carotene — pumpkins are high in these.

+  Saturated fat – pumpkins are low in this (unless you add heavy cream to your pie).

Happy Thanksgiving!

2 replies
  1. Daniel
    Daniel says:

    Thanks for the pumpkin nuggets. An 1,800-pound pumpkin — hard to imagine. And further evidence of how much English owes to Greek, pumpkins too.

    Reply

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