1. Pumpkins!

2. Pumpkins are members of the “Cucurbita" family of plants.
This family also includes squash, gourds, cucumbers, and melons.
Photo:

3. Pumpkins are Fruits! orange yellow white They have hard shells.
A central cavity within the fruit holds the seeds and coarse, stringy pulp.
Pumpkins are usually yellow-orange to orange in color, and sometimes white.
orange
yellow
white

4. Pumpkins are usually shaped like a flattened globe, or can be oblong or pear shaped.
The skin or shell is somewhat smooth and sometimes has vertical lines down the side of the fruit.
Pumpkin fruits can vary greatly in size from less than five pounds to more than one hundred pounds!!

5. They even grow in the state of Alaska!
Six of the seven continents can grow pumpkins!
They even grow in the state of Alaska!
(On which continent is Alaska?)
Antarctica is the only continent that they won't grow in.

6. Pumpkin
The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for "large melon" which is "pepon."
"Pepon" was changed by the French into "pompon."
The English changed "pompon" to "Pumpion."
American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin."

7. Pumpkins grow from seeds.
The seeds are usually planted in the spring after danger of frost has passed – late April or May.
Chronology of the Life Cycle of A Giant Atlantic Pumpkin

8. The pumpkin plant is a vine.
It has large, dark green leaves, orange trumpet-shaped flowers, and prickly hairs on the stems and leaves. Like cucumbers, corn, and muskmelons, the pumpkin has separate male and female flowers on the same plant. 

9. Pumpkin plants have large, dark green, lobed leaves.

10. Pumpkin flowers are yellow and they are edible!
They are 4 to 5 inches in diameter.
The vine has separate male and female flowers.
The fruit is beginning to form at the base of this female flower.
This is a male pumpkin flower.

11. Pumpkins are harvested in the fall!
It usually takes 90 to 120 days for a seed to grow into a ripened pumpkin.
Photo:
Chronology of the Life Cycle of A Pumpkin

12. There are lots of varieties of pumpkins!
Lumina
Cinderella
Queensland Blue
Sugar Pie
Tahitian Pink Banana
Turk's Turban
                                         

13. The Atlantic Giant is the largest variety of pumpkin!
Christy Harp brought a 1,725 pound pumpkin to the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off on Saturday, October 3, 2009.

14. Pumpkins are good for you!
Few Calories
Pumpkin Nutrition Facts (1 cup cooked, boiled, drained, without salt)
Calories 49 Protein 2 grams Carbohydrate 12 grams Dietary Fiber 3 grams Calcium 37 mg Iron 1.4 mg Magnesium 22 mg Potassium 564 mg
Zinc 1 mg Selenium .50 mg Vitamin C 12 mg Niacin 1 mg Folate 21 mcg Vitamin A 2650 IU Vitamin E 3 mg
Vitamins
Low Fat
Pumpkins are 90 % water!

15. In colonial times, Native Americans roasted long strips of pumpkin in an open fire.
Native Americans flattened strips of pumpkins, dried them and made mats.
Native Americans called pumpkins
"isqoutm squash.”
Native Americans used pumpkin seeds for food and medicine.

16. Pumpkins were often used to feed animals, too.
In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling!
Colonists sliced off pumpkin tips; removed seeds and filled the insides with milk, spices and honey. This was baked in hot ashes and is the origin of pumpkin pie.
Pumpkins were often used to feed animals, too.

17. Carving out faces in big pumpkins to make jack-o'-lanterns is now an American tradition, but the jack-o'-lantern didn't originate here.
Halloween began in Ireland where the first jack-o'-lanterns were made of potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, or beets.
According to an old Irish legend, a man called Stingy Jack had been mean and conniving while he lived, and after his death was forced to walk the Earth carrying a turnip lantern with a burning coal inside. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern" or "Jack-o'-lantern." The Irish put jack-o'-lanterns in windows or by doors on Halloween night to scare him and other evil spirits away. It wasn't until Irish immigrants came to America that pumpkins were used.
So the next time you put a jack-o'-lantern in your window, stop and think about mean ol' Jack.

18. More Pumpkin Facts
Pumpkin seeds can be roasted as a snack.
Pumpkins are used to make soups, pies and breads.
The largest pumpkin pie ever made was over five feet in diameter and weighed over 350 pounds. It used 80 pounds of cooked pumpkin, 36 pounds of sugar, 12 dozen eggs and took six hours to bake.
Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites.
100 Things to Do With A Pumpkin
Photo:
Anatomy of a Pumpkin

19. Funny Pumpkins!
Enjoy pumpkins!
PowerPoint compiled B. Burkett