10/19/06 Pumpkin Season

Pumpkin Season. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Everywhere you look signs of autumn are abundant. One sure sign is the large pile of pumpkins at your local grocery store. Unlike many fruits and vegetables that are available year round, pumpkins only seem to appear for just a short amount of time before again disappearing from stores. Pumpkin farms are at their peak, 80 % in fact during October. This is also the time of year for pumpkin growing contests and festivals all over the U.S. Every kind of contest from who can grow the largest to the best pies and of course the carving contest. Some of the largest pumpkins grow in excess of 1100 pounds. Greg Norlin in Anamosa, Iowa talks about how the pumpkins have grown over the years. NORLIN: These pumpkins are growing larger every year. Today the top 10 pumpkins we will weigh here in Anamosa will be over a thousand pounds. These pumpkins look like a Volkswagen. Greg said that 15 years ago the contest winner was a whopping 242 pounds. One report out of Rhode Island talks about a pumpkin weighing in at over 1500 pounds. That could be a new record. 90 percent of a pumpkins weight is water. And speaking of size, the largest pumpkin pie tipped the scales at 350 pounds! Technically the pumpkin is a squash fruit. That's right. A fruit. Pumpkins originally came from Central America and the Connecticut field variety of the traditional American pumpkin. Here are a few more little known facts about pumpkins. Pumpkin seeds can be roasted as a snack. Pumpkins contain potassium and Vitamin A. Pumpkins are used for feed for animals. Pumpkin flowers are edible. In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling. Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites. No word on the effectiveness of either cure. Did we mention&the Great Pumpkin? (Linus) That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.