Witches’ Wart Pumpkins & Jack-O’-Lanterns

It’s Halloween time, and pumpkins, some decorated or carved, are showing up all over Akwesasne. I have to tell you about the carved pumpkin I saw the other day. It really cracked me up although I also almost gagged, too. On a wooden box was this very large carved pumpkin. It had grimaced shaped eyes, a tweaked nose, and its stringy insides and seeds were pulled out through its round carved mouth! Wow! that was a new one for me, and I have to say it was quite creative. I guess you could call it a “sick” pumpkin or a barfkin.

Pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes. Thanks to Mother Nature they also come in many different colors. Pumpkins can be yellow, white, green, tan, red, and even blue.  The blue pumpkin is called an Australian blue. It looks more like a Turban squash than a true pumpkin. The red pumpkin is hard to find. One variety is the “Rouge D’Etant”, and the other is the “Cinderella”. Tan pumpkins are the kind commercial food processors use to make canned pumpkin puree. The white pumpkin is known as the “Giant” pumpkin”. It will eventually, if left on the vine, turn a pale yellow or orange. Many varieties of orange pumpkins are green before turning orange.

This year the pumpkin I bought is covered with wart-like growths. I asked the seller what kind it was, and she did not know. I said I was going to call it a “Witches’ Wart Pumpkin”, and she liked that so much she said that was what she was going to call them. I am guessing maybe it is the result of a pumpkin and a gourd cross breeding.  Pumpkins are available in many varieties and have some pretty interesting names including: Spooktacular, Sugar Treat, Baby Bear, Funny Face, Ghost Rider, Happy Jack, Baby Boo, Sweetie Pie, and Jack-Be-Quick. Pumpkins take 90 to 120 days after planting to mature. There is only one day during a pumpkins growing season that its flower can be pollinated.  If there is a dry season, or you do not water them faithfully, they can be up to 30% smaller than their normal intended size.

Here are some interesting facts about pumpkins.  Pumpkins are actually a fruit. They are a member of the Cucurbita family that includes cucumbers and squash. Pumpkins are 90% water. The Connecticut variety is the traditional American pumpkin. A pumpkin averages about 100 seeds per fruit.  Pumpkins range in size from less than a pound (like the one I grew for the largest pumpkin contest here this year in Akwesasne), or they can grow to over 1,000 pounds.  The largest pumpkin grown, according to World Records at Wiki.answers on the Internet for 2007, was for a 1689 pound pumpkin grown in Topsfield, Ma. It was weighed on September 29, 2007.

The pumpkin capital of the world is Morton, Illinois.  Morton, Illinois is where you will find the Home of Libby Corporation’s pumpkin industry. In 2005, 496 million pounds of pumpkins were produced in Illinois. The total pumpkin production for last year in the US was valued at more than a million dollars.  The top pumpkin production states are Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California. Eighty per cent of pumpkins supplied in the United States are available in the month of October. Old folk remedies once recommended pumpkins to remove freckles and as a cure for snake bites.  Pumpkins contain potassium and vitamin A, and they are used as feed for animals.  Even the flowers are edible. The largest pumpkin pie ever made was five feet in diameter and it weighed over 350 pounds. It took 80 pounds of cooked pumpkin, 36 pounds of sugar, 12 dozen eggs, and six hours for it to bake.

A Google search of the word pumpkin produced over 29 million hits! That makes pumpkin a very popular word in cyberspace. Pumpkins are believed to have originated in the Americas.  In six of the seven continents, it is possible to grow pumpkins. They can even be grown in Alaska. The only continent pumpkins cannot grow in is Antarctica. The taproot of a mature pumpkin can grow to six feet deep and have ten or more lateral branches that branch outward for five to seventeen feet or more. Pumpkin seeds have been found in Mexico that date back to 7000 BC, and references to pumpkins, in many counties, dates back many centuries. The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for a large melon that is “pepon.”  The French changed the “pepon” into “pompon.”  The English changed “pompon” into “pumpion”.  The American colonists changed “pumpion” into “pumpkin.”

Native people used pumpkins for many things. Pumpkins, for centuries before the pilgrims came, were an important staple in their diet. Long strips of pumpkin were roasted over a fire and eaten. Pumpkin and pumpkin seeds were also used as a medicine. Pumpkin parts were also dried and woven into mats. The origin of pumpkin pie is said to have originated when settlers adopted pumpkin as a staple in their diets. They would cut off the top of the pumpkin, remove the seeds, and fill it with milk, spices and honey. The pumpkin was then baked in the hot ashes of a dying fire. The pumpkin’s shell in the old days was the pie shell.

Pumpkin, the solid puree in a can type (not the mixed with sugar and spices kind) is said that if given to dogs, it can help constipation problems, and if it is given to cats it can help them with their hairball problems. Note this is important - Only a small amount is given to either the dogs or the cats.  It’s given with their food, but only a few tablespoons (dogs) or teaspoons (cats) per day.  In 1584, French explorer Jacques Cartier when he explored the St. Lawrence region of North America, he reported finding “gros melons.” The name was translated into English as “pompions,” which has since evolved into the modern “pumpkin.” Interestingly, the tradition of carving pumpkins that is so popular all over the Americas today was brought to the Americas by Irish immigrants.

The Irish tradition originally started with them carving turnips and making jack-o’-lanterns at Halloween. This practice originated centuries ago and came from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack.” According to the story, Stingy Jack had invited the devil to have a drink with him.  As his name suggests, Jack was stingy, and he did not want to pay for the drinks. Jack convinced the devil to turn into a coin that he could use to pay for the drinks. The devil agreed, but Jack did not pay for the drinks, he instead put the coin in his pocket next to a silver cross. This prevented the devil from changing back into his original form. Eventually, Jack freed the devil under the condition that the devil would not bother him for one year, and should Jack die, the devil would not claim his soul.  After a year, Jack tricked the devil again. He got the devil to climb a tree to pick fruit, and while he was up there, Jack carved the sign of the cross into the tree so the devil could not come down until he promised Jack that he would not bother him for another ten years.  Not too long after that Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory person to enter into heaven.

The devil, too, was upset with the tricks Jack had played on him. The devil kept his word about not claiming Jack’s soul, but he did not let Jack enter hell.  He sent Jack off into the dark night with just a burning coal to light his way. Jack put this burning coal into a carved turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as, “Jack of the Lantern”, which eventually became “Jack-O’-Lantern”.  In Ireland and Scotland, people began to carve scary faces into turnips and potatoes, and they placed these in their windows or near their doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and any other wandering spirits. In England, large beets were used. When the immigrants got to America, they soon found that carving their jack-O’-Lanterns out of pumpkins, that were so plentiful, was easier than carving them out of turnips.