Pumpkins and Thanksgiving

Cooler mornings, falling leaves, and Thanksgiving anticipation; is there a better month than November? You will notice a different format this month. It’s just one sister cooking. Lucy has been recovering in rehab from a stress fracture in her back. But she’s doing well, and we hope she can be back home in time for Thanksgiving. But I have some delicious recipes for you. But first let’s talk pumpkin. The oldest evidence of Cucurbita pepo is pumpkin fragments found in Mexico, dated between 7,000 and 5,500 BC. One theory regarding the origin of the name “pumpkin” relates to the “Massachusett” word, used by the Wampanoag people, “pôhpukun”, meaning “grows forth round”. This term may have been used when introducing pumpkins to English Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony, located in present-day Massachusetts. In 2017, the United States produced over 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins. According to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, 95 percent of the U.S.

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