Pumpkins are squashes, but are squashes pumpkins? Some are. Regarding your holiday pumpkin pie, if the pumpkin comes from a can, it’s at least 95% certain that it is from the Dickinson pumpkin, which is more or less a butternut squash. But as Libby’s Pumpkin insists, the Dickinson is really a pumpkin—and that’s true. Botanically speaking, “pumpkin” is a squishy squashy category.
Anyway, I can attest that a good butternut squash/Dickinson pumpkin is a little more flavorful than the classic pie pumpkin, so don’t feel cheated. And both of those taste better than the variety of pumpkin we carve for Halloween. A jack-o-lantern makes a great addition to the compost heap, not the dinner table.
One more fun fact: Almost all pumpkins for canned pie filling are grown in and around the village of Morton, Illinois, near Peoria. So when you eat your pumpkin pie, think about the Land of Lincoln. In these fraught political times, what can we learn from Honest Abe?
Happy Thanksgiving.
Semiosis 