It’s “pumpkin harvest time” again, on the coattails of Canadian Thanksgiving, Halloween, and the yet-to-come American Thanksgiving on Nov. 27. This seems like a good time to revisit my November 2011 article (Oh, how the years fly by)!

Did you know that people have cultivated pumpkins for over 8000 years? They are a type of winter squash in the Cucurbita genus and are native to North America. Indigenous people used pumpkins in many ways: it was a staple food and also could be dried and woven into mats. They were part of the "Three Sisters" companion planting of corn, beans, and squash.

Pumpkins can be so varied...there are over 50 types and they can be orange, yellow, green, blue, white, round, flat, elongated, smooth, warty, striped and more! The four main types are Cucurbita pepo (the classic orange Jack-o’-lantern), Cucurbita moschata (oblong, smooth, and sweet for cooking), Cucurbita maxima (the largest, used for competitions), and Cucurbita mixta (ornamental with unique shapes and colours). A similar way of grouping them is: “Cheese” pumpkins for eating, “Stock” pumpkins for livestock and jack o’lanterns, “giant” pumpkins, and “ornamental” pumpkins.

Guess what else… pumpkins are a type of fruit, a berry known as a pepo! (Culinary experts still treat it as a vegetable though.) The record for the largest pumpkin was 1,246.9kg (2,749lbs) in October 2023. The largest pie weighed 1,678kg (3,699lbs) in 2010. In 2023, the world production of pumpkins, squash, and gourds was 23.7 million tons! Whew!

The following information (check link for much more!) comes from:
Growing Pumpkins: How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Pumpkins | The Old Farmer's Almanac
Pumpkins are a warm-weather crop and require at least 6 hours of sun and plenty of space for the vines to stretch out. Miniature pumpkins need 15+ square feet, 50+ square feet for the standard sizes, and over 1000 square feet for the giants! Planting is done well after the last frost, typically late May in our north. Check your seed package to see how far to space them. Pumpkins need rich soil with aged manure and/or compost. Water carefully, avoiding the leaves or fruit. They have both male and female flowers. Their large pollen particles need strong little bees to fertilize them, and the decline of insects is a concern in some areas. Keep insecticles away from the open flowers... better yet, don't use them! Pumpkins have shallow roots, so be gentle when weeding. After fruit takes form, pruning is helpful. You can can put a thin board or mesh underneath to keep them from rotting. Pumpkins take 60 to 130 days to ripen. Harvest on a dry day when the skins are hard. Store in a cool dry place. Don't carve your Jack-o'-lanterns more than 3 days before Hallowe'en. Properly stored seeds can last up to 6 years!
Note: The almanac has lots of tips on different pests and diseases!

People value pumpkins as an excellent low-fat source of food energy, vitamins, and minerals, even though they are 90% water! Although pumpkins were not part of my personal growing up, I now see them highly recommended for recipes for both my toddler grandchild and my doggie recipes! It seems you can roast them, mash them into soups and purees, and bake them into breads, cookies, and pies. (It is thought that the first pumpkin pies were hollowed out pumpkin shells filled with sweetened, spiced milk and roasted in the fire.) There are even recipes for the leaves, the flowers, and pumpkin seed oil! The toasted seeds are delicious too, and what about pumpkin spice lattés! That’s not all… folk medicine used them to treat intestinal worms!

Fun Stuff!
Ever heard of “pumpkin chunking”? That’s a competition where mechanical devices throw pumpkins! Prizes are for the farthest thrown. The Giant Pumpkin Regattas have costumed racers paddle boats made from hollowed-out giant pumpkins. What about pumpkin bowling and golf? There is even a “London Vegetable Orchestra” which features pumpkin drums!

Of course, our favourite use of pumpkins is at Halloween, a tradition dating back to the mid-1800s. Carrying turnip, beet, or potato lanterns to scare away the wandering soul of “Stingy Jack” originated in Ireland. Irish and Scottish immigrants brought this custom to North America and adapted it to pumpkins, which were much easier to carve. The tradition was also linked with the ancient Celtic “Samhain”, when souls were said to travel, as well as All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day and Oct. 31st became our current "Halloween".

Searching online for "Pumpkin Patches" shows just how popular pumpkins are with families of all ages. One highlight of October for me was taking my class to the Pumpkin Patch. After selecting our pumpkins, we dove into the noisy fun of scooping out the seeds and voting on faces to carve. We even baked pumpkin slices in my toaster oven, letting the kids taste their harvest. My favourite part was the big Math Competition: each table counted their pumpkin's seeds (by 10s in egg cartons) to see who had the most. These moments captured the joy and excitement that pumpkins bring during the season!

Related Links:
There is SO much available online... this is just a small selection.

Growing Pumpkins

Farmer’s Almanac: How to grow pumpkins
https://www.almanac.com/plant/pumpkins

How to Grow Pumpkins: the Spruce
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-grow-pumpkins-1403469

How to Grow Pumpkins for Beginners: The Simple Living Country Gal
https://simplelivingcountrygal.com/how-to-grow-pumpkins-for-beginners/

Video: Growing Giant Pumpkins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ4Z_RdgvgU

Pumpkin Patches: Vancouver BC area

Vancouver Sun recommendations
https://vancouversun.com/news/metro-vancouver-best-pumpkin-patches-halloween
Note: My school always loved the Laity Pumpkin Patch in Maple Ridge.
A new place recommended to us was the Taves Family Farm in Abbotsford.

Vancouver is Awesome recommendations
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/events-and-entertainment/pumpkin-patches-metro-vancouver-october-2025-11303715

Fun Stuff:

The Meaning behind 13 different Halloween Pumpkin Colors – Decoded
https://parade.com/living/pumpkin-colors-meaning

75 Perfect Pumpkin Quotes To Put You in a Gourd Mood This Fall
Best Pumpkin Quotes
https://parade.com/1265502/michelle-parkerton/pumpkin-quotes/

“There are three things that I’ve learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” — Linus, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Pumpkin Patch: pumpkin facts, recipes, jokes
https://www.pumpkin-patch.com/about.html

Carve your own pumpkin online activity (for young children)
https://www.abcya.com/games/pumpkin_carving (has a fun ending!)
another...Carve your own pumpkin online activity (for young children)
https://play.pumpkinstudio.co/

Video: How to Carve a Pumpkin for Beginners (by an Art teacher)
(There are other videos around, but I like the fact that she knew to cut the lid off at an angle!)
https://youtu.be/kM5FkDtka5c

Recipes

30 Best Pumpkin Puree Recipes So You'll Never Have To Waste Another Can
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/g21986284/pumpkin-puree-recipes/ 
Pumpkin Spice
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a23573586/pumpkin-pie-spice-recipe/
Pumpkin Spice Latte
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a21972026/pumpkin-spice-latte-recipe/

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
https://www.loveandlemons.com/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins/#wprm-recipe-container-87432

Pumpkin Patch: Pumpkin Cuisine
https://www.pumpkin-patch.com/recipes.html

Pumpkin Pie Spice
https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a78588/how-to-make-pumpkin-pie-spice/

Books

Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon by Cindy Ott
https://www.amazon.ca/Pumpkin-Curious-History-American-Icon/dp/0295993324

Pumpkin, Pumpkin: Folklore, History, Planting Hints and Good Eating by Anne Copeland
https://www.amazon.ca/Pumpkin-Folklore-History-Planting-Eating/dp/1719980985/

The Perfect Pumpkin: Growing/Cooking/Carving by Gail Damerow
https://www.amazon.ca/Perfect-Pumpkin-Growing-Cooking-Carving/dp/0882669931

Books/videos for Children

Amazon: books about pumpkins (link)
https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=books+about+pumpkins

Amazon: books on how to grow pumpkins (link)
https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=how+to+grow+pumpkins

Life Cycle of a Pumpkin: science video for children
https://youtu.be/dazAeyevPew

	A personal favourite from my author/friend, David Schwartz, with photos of a decomposing pumpkin by Dwight Kuhn, all the way to a new seed sprouting! Rotten Pumpkin: A Rotten Tale in 15 voices https://www.amazon.ca/Rotten-Pumpkin-Tale-15-Voices/dp/1939547032 Surprisingly, I found a video recording of this book too! https://youtu.be/nS-WnYsqqyQ