The Great Pumpkin
It's More Than Just a Spiced Latte
In my neck of the woods, autumn signals a few readied rituals: back to school, an obsessive neighborhood leaf removal competition, and, in recent years, pumpkin-spice everything.
My kids are grown, and our lawn has mostly evergreens; therefore, chasing leaves isn’t necessary. I prefer to “leave the leaves.” That way, plants, animals, and the natural landscape can thrive.1
So, for me, Fall is about two things: leaves and pumpkins.
The rustling sounds of dried leaves vividly remind me of my youth. It’s one of those emotional memories2 that immediately transports me back five decades. (I first wrote about the impact of emotional memory in this post from Sep. 19, 2023.) In those days, I spent more time walking, running, jumping, and playing in those crisp reminders of the past summer. And it’s not just the sound but the smell I recall so clearly.
I’ve always loved Halloween and the pumpkin-carving ritual, along with trick or treating. In those days, we started canvassing the neighborhood at 6:00 p.m., ending at 8:00. Two hours was enough to cover six blocks of the main road, up and back. The sun went down shortly after starting our trek, which made the event more fun. The cheap plastic vampire and werewolf masks took on a scarier vibe in the darkness!
As a kid, dressing up like someone or something else gave me a thrill. The ability to become someone you admired (a nurse), someone you feared (a witch), or someone you knew you could never be (Wonder Woman) was great for the imagination!
We carved pumpkins a few days ahead to display on our front steps, something Mom called the ‘stoop.’ Our jack-o-lanterns usually lasted until Halloween night, when local marauders would smash them on the street.
When my kids came of age, I wanted to create a lovely memory with all the bells and whistles. I’d spread newspapers out on the front porch for them to work on while they enjoyed the scents of autumn (which in our neighborhood was burning leaves.)
They had special kid-proof serrated carving knives that were far safer than the kitchen knives my brother and I used. (I’m still surprised that we never spilled blood.) I made hot cider with cinnamon sticks for them to sip and took photos of the finished products. (Quite the Instagram moment, long before social media.) All in all, I thought it was a memorable experience.
Until one conversation where I reminisced with my adult son. He informed me that the hot cider helped warm his fingers, frozen from scooping out the pumpkin on those frigid late October evenings. I was mortified thinking they were shivering in the cold, but (apparently) that helped make it memorable, too!
Each Fall, I decorate a pencil tree near the front door with white fairy lights in an autumn theme of colored leaves, matching berries, and tiny pumpkins. I refrain from carving the actual pumpkin, preferring to keep it through Thanksgiving. Then I chop it up and put it out for the birds and critters in the backyard.
At that point, the pencil tree is stripped and turned over to a winter theme with pinecones and red berry picks. When Spring arrives, it transforms again into pastel flowers.
Each season brings its unique beauty and meaning. Autumn transitions us from an active, busy summer towards a more restful, quiet winter. Spring prepares the world for another lively summer, and so it goes.
My Dad used to say that variety “is the spice of life.” And in the fall season, that spice tends to be pumpkin!
10 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know About Pumpkins - (I didn’t)
The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for "large melon," which is "pepon." "Pepon" was nasalized by the French into "pompon." The English changed "pompon" to "Pumpion."3
The original jack-o-lanterns were made with turnips and potatoes by the Irish, thanks to the myth about ‘Stingy Jack.’4
The heaviest pumpkin in the world was grown in October of 2023 and weighed 2,749 lbs. (1,246.9 kgs.)5
The largest pumpkin pie baked weighed 3,699 lbs. (1,678 kgs.) in September 2010.6
Pumpkins come from a flower and have seeds, which makes them a fruit.7
Female flowers are only receptive to pollen for about four hours. If pollination is successful in this short window, the pumpkin will continue to swell and grow. If not, it will wither and fall from the vine.8
Pumpkins are 80 - 90% water. Because they’re hollow, they weigh less than the water they displace. Therefore, they can float!9
Pumpkin seed oil is used to raise HDL levels and minimize symptoms of menopause.10
Canned pumpkin - actual pumpkin or squash? Libby's, the quintessential canned pumpkin brand, uses a proprietary strain of the Dickinson pumpkin variety in their product, also often called a Dickinson squash. On Libby's website, it states that their product is 100 percent pumpkin. And that's true, in that any hard-skinned squash can be called a pumpkin because there isn't a botanical distinction for what makes a pumpkin a pumpkin. 11
In botany, berries are fleshy fruits that develop from a single flower with only one ovary. Following this scientific definition, tomatoes, eggplants, watermelons, and pumpkins are all berries. Interestingly, strawberries and raspberries are not berries, as botanists classify them as aggregate fruits.12
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
“Do you have a favorite autumn memory?”
LIFE MATTERS is a reader-supported publication (No Ads or Affiliate links). So please SUBSCRIBE to / and SHARE if you enjoy this weekly newsletter. Or, consider UPGRADING TO PAID to receive Private-Subscriber Only Posts + Bonus Content while supporting a small independent writer.
Numbers 8 and 9 interested me. I love baking with pumpkin, including making homemade dog treats. I'm researching number 9 to learn more.
I never liked celebrating Halloween as a kid, and less as an adult. But I sit on the side and admire others who take the holiday very seriously.
Loved the details, great read, thank you.
A lovely read - the leaves, the fragrances, the mental image of gardens in autumn.
Of course, Autumn in Australia is in April-May, so a little different.
As a child (think 1950's), Halloween had no relevance here at all and it had barely registered by the time I had my own children. And with pumpkins being an expensive supermarket commodity in spring-summer, it didn't fit with our climate. I never felt as though we missed out on anything because our seasons were so filled with Outdoors stuff anyway.
These days, however, with TV, social media and active marketing by stores, Halloween as a kids' festival is creeping in. Sad though, that parents have to walk with the children for child safety and that it's bright sunny daylight (summer daylight-saving). It loses its legendary edge.
My grandson lives on a farm away from suburbia and as a five year old, I think he'd rather be out on the tractor with his Dad, feeding out to the ewes and lambs. I dare say that will change as he grows older. But in a way, I hope not...