Halloween is coming and SSI students are carving pumpkins. However, only some students have carved a pumpkin this year. In this article, I want to reveal some fun facts about the Pumpkin.
Did you know that Pumpkins are fruits? In detail, pumpkins are a member of the gourd family, which includes other fruits like watermelon and winter squash. The color of a fruit is important because it can predict what the nutrient is. The pale orange pumpkin contains an abundance of Vitamin A. Most orange fruits are good for eye health.
The next fact is related to history. The first jack-o’-lanterns were made by turnips or potatoes — not pumpkins. I cannot imagine how a little potato can become a jack-o’-lantern.
Also, pumpkins originated in North America. This might sound familiar to the kids who learned US History in SSI. During the colonial era, European countries exchanged food like the pumpkin and sugar. Squash(pumpkins) along with maize(corn) and beans were important food sources for the Native Americans.
Another important fact is that pumpkins grow (almost) everywhere except Antarctica. They even grow in Alaska. This makes the pumpkin a valuable food source for both humans and animals.
Relating to cooking, the world’s largest pumpkin pie was 20 feet in diameter and weighed 3,699 pounds. That is a pie wider than an elephant! The largest pumpkin in the U.S weighed 2,528 pounds, earning Geddes $6,000 in prize money at the Deerfield Fair in 2018. The world record in 2016 by Mathias Willemijns of Belgium, whose pumpkin tipped the scale at a whopping 2,624 pounds. That is more than a thousand kilograms. What a big pumpkin!
by. Park, Hayan