What is Pumpkin?

An edible pumpkin about to be cooked in my kitchen a few years ago.

Thanksgiving is coming, and thus pumpkins have turned from a decorative/scary item into a food. Pumpkins that are grown for jack-o-lanterns generally have flesh that is stringy and watery — including, both big and small decorative pumpkins.  Small edible pumpkins are the ones you buy if you want to cook them — the stores label them as “pie pumpkins.” They would also make good pumpkin soup, roast pumpkin, or pumpkin stew. I assume that canned pumpkin also comes from this cultivar, though certain other types of squash are also used (legally) in canned pumpkin.

Decorative pumpkins wouldn’t poison you, but just wouldn’t make good food. After the holiday, the giant pumpkins in our neighborhood (as far as I know) are picked up by the same truck that brought them. I have no idea how the disposal is done, but I assume they go to some composting center.

Canned pumpkin or pie filling can legally be either
actual pumpkin or one of a few kinds of orange squash.

Pumpkin Decorations

The pumpkin wall on Halloween night. It goes on much longer than this. (Alice’s photo)

The pumpkin wall on Sunday. Some pumpkins remain, others are gone.

Cooking pumpkin and squash

A pumpkin pie web image search.

An old spice container with pumpkin pie spice that my mother always used.

Some people confuse the “pumpkin spice” blend (allspice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves. and cinnamon) with actual pumpkin. The spice is used in many beverages and dishes at this time of year, sometimes with actual pumpkin, sometimes not.

Making soup in my kitchen this week: a squash that’s equivalent to pumpkin.

 

Stereotyped Thanksgiving image with pumpkins.

Our Leaders Enjoy A Meal?

Presidential banquet, starving masses. (Image from the Guardian)
Thinking about Thanksgiving forces me to consider how some Americans are being abused,
deprived of ways to buy food, and kicked around by our leaders.

Blog post © 2025 mae sander