Sure, you carve pumpkins every year for Halloween decorations and make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dessert. But you may be surprised to learn these obscure facts about pumpkins found on History.com:

1. In 1584, after French explorer Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence region of North America, he reported finding “gros melons.” The name was translated into English as “pompions,” which has since evolved into the modern “pumpkin.”
2. Carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns originated hundreds of years ago in Ireland. Back then, however, jack-o’-lanterns were made out of turnips or potatoes. It wasn’t until Irish immigrants arrived in America and discovered the pumpkin that a new Halloween ritual was born.
3. The heaviest pumpkin weighed 1,810 pounds, 8 ounces, and was presented by Chris Stevens at the Stillwater Harvest Fest in Stillwater, Minnesota, in October 2010.
4. The largest pumpkin pie ever baked was in 2005 and weighed 2,020 pounds.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN from your Friends and Neighbors at SKT!