Pumpkin Traditions and Seeds
Now is the time for us to be up our orange elbows in pumpkins, scooping out large stringy masses of pulp-covered seeds. Before starting to carve the jack-o-lantern, it’s wise to get your seeds cleaned and roasted to have something to snack on after all the work.
Pumpkin seeds are valuable additions to diets, especially those of children who will soon be frantically sorting and eating lots of empty calories from their trick-or-treat haul. Often discarded, the seeds can contribute protein, iron, magnesium, and potassium to systems ravaged by candy.
Cucurbita (kew-CUR-bit-a), a genus that includes pumpkin, squash, and gourds, is native to the Americas, where it is believed to have been cultivated for 9000 years. A tropical annual vine, it is related to the cucumber known to the Romans and the Greeks, who called them “pepon,” which means melon in Greek. The word became “pompon” in French and later “pumping” to the British. American colonists gave the current usage of the word.
There are 650 varieties of Cucurbita, with about 25 species in cultivation today. The largest fruits in the entire plant kingdom, C.maxima can reach contest-winning weights of more that 1000 pounds; C. moschata is the sweetest-flavored species; but C. pepo, with its hard, ridged peduncle, or stem, is the orange field pumpkin that most of us will be carving this week.
Several years ago, I attended a Giant Pumpkin contest in Erie, PA, where the pumpkins rolled in singly on 18-wheelers. It takes commitment to raise such specimens--and a lot of heavy equipment. C. maxima are the giant pumpkins, cultivated from the Hubbard squash cross-bred with the Kabocha variety since the early 19th century. Atlantic Giant is an American variety that produces the most massive fruit in the world, 300 to 1800 pounds per specimen. This is different than the type of pumpkin that you want for your pie because this variety tends to have a more fibrous and watery flesh.
- moschata includes butternut, cheese, kabocha, calabaza, Cushaw, crookneck, Musquee de Provence, Jarradahl, and Queensland Blue, among many other cultivars distinctive for their sweet, meaty flesh. This variety is most often used in soups, pies, and for stuffing. Large wedges of C. moschata are often sold at farmers markets in France, where every house seems to have a pot of squash soup on the stove in the fall. Most of the pumpkin that becomes pies is grown near Morton, Illinois, where Nestle operates a huge pumpkin packing plant that accounts for 90% of the canned pumpkin on our grocery shelves
- pepo is the variety used for ornamental displays and for carving, a tradition rooted in a Celtic past 2,500 years old. October 31 was celebrated as the last day of summer before the feast of Samain on November 1. All fires were extinguished across the land to represent the end of sun-filled days. In the darkness, Druids performed a ceremony to re-ignite the sacred fire and gave some coals to the head of each household, who carried them away in a carved-out turnip or rutabaga, dispelling evil spirits. These vegetable lanterns spawned the legend of Stingy Jack, who made a deal with the Devil that backfired to keep him wandering the earth with his burning coal in a carved-out turnip. Irish immigrants to America in the mid-1800s found the hollow pumpkins much easier to carve and decorate than turnips and rutabagas, and our current American tradition evolved.
Pumpkin seeds can be cleaned and roasted in a moderate oven for immediate gratification after completing the carving task. The white outer shell that covers the pumpkin seed kernel is more digestible if it is cooked in salt water to soften it. If you have the patience, the seeds can be cracked to reveal the kernels, plump and green within.
Certain varieties of pumpkin produce seeds of particular merit. Styrian oil pumpkins are grown in south-eastern Austria specifically for their seeds, which have no shell. The shiny, dark green seeds are harvested by hand, dried, and then roasted before they are pressed to yield extremely rich, greenish-black oil that is good in salad dressings or as a finish for a squash soup.
There are several ways to prepare pumpkin seeds for snacking. Scoop out the seeds and rinse in a colander to remove the stringy pulp. Pat the seeds dry with paper towels before roasting. They can be parboiled in salted water or roasted just as they are. They can also be dried in a food dehydrator or left in an oven with the pilot light on for 24 hours until crisp.
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
Preheat the oven to 300º F. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray (olive oil or butter-flavored will give more flavor). Spread the seeds on it in a single layer. Spray the seeds with the spray as well. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the seeds are golden and crisp. As soon as they are golden, remove them from the oven and season with salt, pepper, cumin powder, or chili powder. Allow the seeds to cool, and then store them in an airtight container. These make a delightful snack, or they can be sprinkled on salads, a bowl of soup, or on top of the Scary Pumpkin Egg Noodle dish.
