Pumpkins Facts 2

Like I said yesterday, here is part 2 of the pumpkin facts. The most curious fact for me from yesterday is that pumpkins need squash bees to fertilize. My dad plants some from year to year. Thinking about it, I will have to ask him why he stopped. Anyway, I always thought they needed seeds and water to grow, as dumb as that is. Let’s see what new fact I will learn about today.

• As heavy as a small car.

According to the Guinness World Record, the heaviest pumpkin came from Belgium in 2016 by Mathias Willemijns. Weighting at 2,624.6 lbs (1,190.5 kg) which is a small car rough weighs.

• The Halloween tradition of jack-o’-lanterns didn’t start with pumpkins.

Jack-o’-lanterns are an icon when it comes to Halloween, even in Malta from around 2010. However, the earliest versions were made from turnips and mangel beets, not pumpkin.

• The first Pumpkins depended on large mammals.

Yes, you heard correct. Scientists verified that they found squash seeds after finding fossilized mastodon droppings as old as 30,000 years old. Luckily, humans took over farming, or pumpkins would have become extinct decades ago.

• Pumpkins help you see too!

Like carrots, pumpkins are an excellent nutritional for eyes health due to their orange colour, which contains:

Alpha and beta carotene.

Beta-cryptoxanthin, which the body can synthesize into Vitamin A.

Antioxidants.

• In parts of Canada, some people race in boats made of giant pumpkins.

Funny fact: Each October, Windsor, Nova Scotia, holds an annual water race called the Windsor Pumpkin Regatta. For this race, participants must only use giant pumpkins as floatation devices. Held at Lake Pesaguid, the course spans around half a mile (800 m). You may have never heard of it, but Danny Dill, son of the Atlantic Giant pumpkin breeder Howard Dill, founded the race in 1999.

Note: I did copy and paste the last fact because, for some reason, I couldn’t word it. So, I only knew the nutritional value of the ten points I shared yesterday and today since I studied it in school. Plus, I’m still wondering if I’m the only one here that hasn’t had pumpkin pie, the sweet kind.

Alex

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All Images are from Pixabay.