Other than carving pumpkins for Halloween, have you tried using pumpkins as part of your meals? Pumpkins are very versatile from their flesh shells, seeds to their flowers. Pumpkins can be boiled, baked, steamed, or roasted. Since it is a type of squash, people generally treat it as a vegetable and serve as is or as a complementary ingredient in other meals (soups, desserts or drinks).

Pumpkin seeds, for example, are a popular choice of snack that can be found in stores, but you can actually make them yourself. So when you finish gutting out the insides of the pumpkin for your Jack-O- Lantern, save the seeds for a later snack, Make sure you wash and roast them before eating.

Pumpkin oil is another example of how you can use a pumpkin. The oil oozing out of the pumpkin seeds as you roast them is a thick, greenish type. You can collect this oil and use it for cooking or as salad dressing.

And of course, if you like the traditional uses of pumpkins, you can always just carve the pumpkin for decorative purposes. Either way just have fun!

Fun Facts about Pumpkins

1. Pumpkin is really a squash; it is a member of the Cucurbita Family which includes squash and cucumbers.

2. Pumpkins are grown on all parts of the world, even Alaska! Antarctica is the only continent that pumpkins wonʼt grow in.

3. Pumpkin flowers are edible.

4. The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,140 lb.

5. Pumpkins are 90% water.

6. Pumpkins are actually a fruit.

If you have some tidbits of facts you'd like to share about pumpkins, email us and we'll make sure to add that to our list!