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Community Corner

What Can You Do With Pumpkins?

Learn the history of pumpkins and how many different ways you can use them.

Growing up I didn’t really like pumpkin pie, which pretty much made me an outcast during Halloween and Thanksgiving. However, I’ve found other ways to use pumpkin and have realized it’s a versatile vegetable.

Oh yes, do you remember that pumpkins are a vegetable?

Pumpkins have been traced back to the early ancient America’s and the Native Americans used pumpkin to survive the long harsh winters. Like they did with many natural resources, Native Americans used all of the pumpkin. They would dry the seeds and eat them. Plus, they could roast, boil, and bake the inside for a sweet tasty treat. In addition, a dried pumpkin could be ground up and used as flour. Not wasting any part of the pumpkin, the Native Americans would use pumpkin as bowls and storage containers. I guess we’ve come a long way from using pumpkins to Tupperware.

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The pumpkin pie we eat today is not what the Pilgrims ate at their Thanksgiving meal. Actually, the pumpkin was gutted and filled with eggs, spices, cream and honey, then buried in the ground with hot ashes all around. Once the pumpkin was cooked, they would remove the lid and consume the contents. There was no flaky pastry crust in sight. That came much later.

Many nationalities used carved vegetables as a symbol of various celebrations, but when the European settlers came to America, they found that these large pumpkins were perfect for carving. In the late 1800s, Halloween and pumpkin carving became a celebration of community and welcoming neighbors.

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Here are a few recipes which support the uniqueness and versatility of pumpkin. Try one and maybe you will find a new way to use pumpkins.

Pumpkin Seeds

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