Whether you wake to find mist hanging in damp hollows, snow draping the last of your tomato vines, or sunshine glinting off a warm sea, there is one thing that unites us all this month: pumpkins. With Halloween quickly followed by Thanksgiving, pumpkins seem to define this season. We make family trips in a quest for the perfect jack-o'-lantern, dress up in pumpkin costumes to go trick or treating, decorate our homes with them, and slice them up to make pies, bread, and soup.

Pumpkins are native to Central America and the desert Southwest. The pumpkin we typically carve or cook is a species called Cucurbita pepo, although there are four species of Cucurbita that include cultivars called pumpkins. With corn and beans, pumpkins and other squash form the "three sisters," a staple part of Native American agriculture. Because of this, pumpkins spread to new areas of North America, including New England, where Native tribes introduced the early Pilgrims to pumpkins. This was fortunate for the settlers, as pumpkins helped them fend off starvation during their first winters.

LEARN MORE