One Old Vegetable

June 17, 2002

According to botanists at the Smithsonian, pumpkins first grew in tropical America. Plants related to our modern-day Jack O'Lanterns left seeds in Mexico that date back from 7000 to 5500 BC. According to the website www.eatethnic.com, pumpkins were the first vegetable cultivated by humans, were once used to get rid of freckles, and early Americans even used pumpkin pulp to brew beer.

Pumpkins can be relatively small, like the sugar pumpkins favored for pies. Or, in the case of the Dave Stelts' award-winning vegetable, they can be enormous. At a Canfield, Ohio 2000 garden show, Dave's orange monster tipped the scales at 1140 pounds. That pumpkin still holds the world record.