Jaunty Jack O’Lanterns & Squashed Secrets- Pumpkin
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Rooted, where this week I have lots of secrets and a few fun facts up my sleeves about the plant of the week- Pumpkin!
To not hold in ALL the secrets I’ll let you in on a kind of big one first, and that’s that ALL squash- including pumpkin, are secretly kind of the same plant, just with different mutations and variables- so kind of like citrus, but for some reason more mind boggling to me??
Anyway, now that that cat’s outta the bag, lets smash some pumpkin facts, shall we?
Now pumpkins, as I am sure you are familiar, are the big round orange fruits we’re seeing ALL over right now as we get ready to celebrate halloween, and while they can be all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors, today we’ll be focusing on them pretty generally, but I’ll be sure to shout out any super notable variates as we go.
Pumpkin, or cucurbita pepo is a member of the cucurbitaceae family, with famous family members like spaghetti squash, zucchini, cucumber, and watermelon.
Best known for their fruits (which are technically berries), pumpkins are warm weather crops with large lobed leaves that often have prickly spines all over the stems. They have a thin kind of tissue paper-y flowers (some male , some female) making them reliant on pollinators OR very dedicated gardeners with an army of paint brushes.. The large leaves provide cover and shade as the fruits develop, preventing burn and helping keep the soil from drying out. As the summer turns to fall, these large fruits are ready to harvest, with the largest among them weihing in somewhere between 150 ands 2000 pounds, with the current record going to an atlantic giant pumpkin dubbed “michael jordan” weighing in at 2749 pounds from grower Travis Gienger in Minnesota. As a 3 time champ, I know I'll be watching to see what he does this year…also- we just have to shout out Minnesota for having all of my niche horticulture interests- big pumpkins, rare lilies, passive aggressive seed art…. Like you know the state fair is THE place to be… maybe next year we’ll do a trip out there.
But back to pumpkins- did you know that the United states is actually one of the biggest exporters of pumpkin in the world? This makes sense because pumpkins and their relatives are native to north america. In fact, the name pumpkin is believed to be derived from the wampanoag word pôhpukun which roughly translates to grows forth round' OR from the greek Pepon, meaning melon which is how we got Peop, which botanically refers to large berries with smooth or ribbed skin, a thick wall of flesh, and then embedded seeds- so your pumpkin, cucumber, watermelons etc.
Believed to have been cultivated even over 10,000 years ago in what is now oaxaca mexico, original pumpkins were NOT the delightful delicacies we know today. In fact, they were small, green, and exceptionally bitter. BUT they were great for holding things like water, grains, and all kinds of other goodies. And they stayed good for a long time, making them very useful in winter months when substantial food would have been harder to come by.
As we continued to grow and evolve alongside pumpkin, they got bigger, sweeter, and more productive, eventually giving way to varieties like the field pumpkin, butternut squash, and sugar pumpkins which are what a lot of us think of when we think about buying pumpkins to roast at the grocery store.
Of course, we really can’t talk about pumpkins without discussion the three sisters legend and indigenous growing practice. To start with the story, I’ll be telling a rendition as It has been told to me primarily through a potawatomi lens, but there are a variety of different stories across nations and I would encourage you to look in to those- especially from the peoples who originally inhabited wherever you are now calling home.
According to the story, one particularly brutal winter, people found themselves with very little food. They were hungry, scared, and worried about how they would make it through until spring. During one brutal winter storm, three women appeared out of the snow. Weak, weary, and in need of support, thdey asked the people of the village for help\. Quickly, the villagers started a fire, and each gathered some food they felt they could spare for the women- It wasn’t much, but it was really all they had.
Thankful, the three women later revealed themselves to be three spirits- one of corn, one of bean, and one of pumpkin, and they swore to the villagers they would never go hungry again if they planted their seeds together, providing them with a stabler source of vitamins, protein, and carbs that could easily be dried and stored for long periods of time, all while helping to support the soil, making gardening easier too.
In some other stories, the seeds of the 3 sisters are actually said to either be gifts from sky woman, or representations of her children, but no matter how the story goes, the facts are the same- the so called 3 sisters can always be counted on to provide for anyone dedicated to caring for and culitating their relationship with the earth, and are held dear as gifts.
To plant them, bury the seeds close, but not too close, and watch as corn springs up firsty- loosening the soil as she grows, and providing structure for bean, who adds nitrogen back into the soil to help feed her sisters as she scales the stalk of corn to leave room for pumpkin, whos large protective leaves help to keep her sisters cool and shade the soil at their feet- keeping the soil protected from the sun so it can hold on to it’s nutrients and moisture.
This method of planting is well studied, and has been found to be AS productive if not more productive than commercial crops, as iot requires about a quarter of the space, fewer resources, and little if any pesticides, as all plants are less susceptible to pest and disease when not planted as a monocrop. The one thing this method of planting does require is a bit more time, as commercial harvesting techniques do not work for this rather detailed harvest. BUT I would argue it’s time well spent, especially if you invite a few friends and have a garden harvesting party…which- for the record, I am ALWAYS down for.
Coming as a shock to probably none of us, pumpkins have historically been seen as a symbol of prosperity and abundance due to both their ability to give us brain-saving carbs in the dead of winter, and the sheer number of seeds they have packed in there.
In addition to the whole fruit, pumpkin SEEDS have their own significance, often used in spellwork as a way of attracting opportunity and new beginnings.
While people in north america were using their pumpkin powers for good, my ancestors across the atlantic were doing something…I guess a little less wholesome?
The story goes that a man named Stingy Jack was out to get as much out of life as he could- so we went about tormenting Satan himself for a bit of a thrill. He started out the way most bad dates would- he invited the devil out for a drink, then essentially refused to pay…BUT jack put an extra twist on it where instead of holing the devil verbally hostage explaining that Franz Kafka is actually funny, he got the devil to transform into a coin, then tucked him into his pocket with a silver cross- keeping him trapped (and presumably covered in lint) for over a year….
After a year he got bored and decided to free the devil, who I guess must have been pretty lonely, because before long Jack had him climb a tree to pick some fruit, only to carve a cross into it and keep him trapped for a decade. Shortly after freeing the devil again, jack died…and god took one look at this unsavory man and basically slammed those pearly gates in his face- apparently there was no room in heaven for someone so rotten, even if they were bullying satan himself.
Obviously Satan also wasn’t super thrilled at having stingy jack stinking up his corner of hell, so he sent him out too- this time cursing him to walk about in the dark forever with only a burning ember for light.
After awhile, Jack got tired of burning his hands with the coal, so he hollowed out a turnip to keep it in- and THAT dear friends is the origin story of the Jack O lantern
Of course, as Irish immigrants started coming to America, they brought this tale with them, and as time went on we switched from carving the traditional turnip to a bigger and more customizable pumpkin.
We keep them on our porches as a way of protecting ourselves from stingy jack, and any other malevolent spirits who might we wandering about on all hallows eve looking to make a ruckus.
In other famous pumpkin men, we have peter peter pumpkin eater- a man who famously had a wife but couldnt keep her….In most stories this literal killer is said to trap his wife in a pumpkin for her infidelity where she lived out her days as a pumpkin prisoner…
Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
Had a wife but couldn't keep her;
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well.
Which is a far cry from the original
Peter, my neeper,
Had a wife,
And he couldna' keep her,
He pat her i' the wa',
And lat a' the mice eat her.
Which is still somehow better than this OTHER version
Eeper Weeper, chimney sweeper,
Had a wife but couldn't keep her.
Had another, didn't love her,
Up the chimney he did shove her.[
Scary stuff….
BUT now that we’ve had our creepy nursery rhyme fun we can jump into the medicinal uses of Pumpkin.
Pumpkin was often called on to help treat stomach issues because it is a filling and nutrient rich food that’s pretty easy to digest- making it a good food to start giving to anyone having a hard time not puking as it helps to replenish a lot of really important nutrients and give the body the sustained energy it needs to recover from fighting off whatever germs it’s got to get rid of.
Additionally, I am delighted to inform you that I have another halloween cure for WORMS because apparently that’s an annual treat to ME on the show, okay..
Pumpkin seeds are potentially helpful in treating notably NONdemonic nematodes H. Bakeri, which take up house in various bellies of livestock and people alike. In a few preliminary studies, scientists found that extracts from pumpkin seed- specifically those taken in an ethanol extraction interfered with the nematodes ability to reproduce by in terfereing with the eggs hatching, this is largely due to active chemicals cucurbitine, berberine and palmatine with berberine also helping to reduce some of the inflammation in the liver commonly associated with these infections. This is especially useful for agricultural applications, where it is more cost effective and currently being studied in applications where nematodes have become resistant to current medications.
Now that we’vew really dug deep into intestinal nematodes, it feels kind of mean to talk at length about the culinary uses of pumpkin, which I am sure you all know about and love or hate already. Maybe I’ll share some interesting dishes on instagram or whip up something on mocktails and mixtapes for the website… remains to be seen
BUT instead of giving you a potentially empty promise, I will instead take this time to tell you about what I think we need to see at the LA olympics- Pumpkin chunking….growing up near the pumpkin capitol of the US (shout out Morton IL) I am familiar with the sport, but had no idea it was SUCH a big deal.
To those who are not in the pumpkin loop, pumpkin chucking is basically where people make homemade catapults etc to literally fling pumpkins across fields- it is as glorious and potentially dangerous as it sounds, and one of my new dreams is to someday have a team where we take this all way too seriously but in the silliest manner possible…if you’re down to join, please let me know what you think the team name should be.
That’s all I’ve got for this week, but I’ll be back next week with an equally delightful fall treat for us to talk about. See you then!
Sources:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5037735/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter,_Peter,_Pumpkin_Eater
https://www.history.com/news/history-of-the-jack-o-lantern-irish-origins
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CUPE
https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/10/giant-largest-pumpkin-world-record-2023.html
https://lldf.blogg.lu.se/debunking-a-myth-by-chunking-the-etymology-of-pumpkin/
https://nsuok.edu/heritage/three-sisters-legend.aspx
https://www.appleholler.com/the-great-pumpkin-facts-legends-and-lore/
