Nutritional Benefits Of Pumpkin
Pumpkin is a very popular orange winter squash, made famous on Halloween
Pumpkin is a fruit, although it is treated as a vegetable, and is in the family of ‘gourd’, which includes zucchini, cucumber, watermelons, honey-dew melons, cantaloupe, and butternut squash. The big orange case contains pulp and seeds and is usually carved out in various faces and displayed during the traditional Halloween Season.
Pumpkins are usually harvested in October, which coincides with Halloween and Thanksgiving (in America). There are forty-five species of pumpkins.
History Of Pumpkin
Pumpkin is known to be around for more than 5,000 years and was originally called ‘POMPIOMS’. Pumpkin is originally grown in Central America and Mexico, and have been grown by these people even before beans and corns. Now pumpkins are being grown in other parts of the world.
Nutritional Contents of Pumpkin
Pumpkin contains edible flowers, seeds and pulp and is rich in vitamins and minerals, significantly vitamins A, (obvious from its orange colour). The seeds are high in iron and zinc.
Pumpkin is a low-calorie fruit that is 90% water, like most fruits. Pumpkin has more fibre than kale, more potassium than a banana, and are rich in magnesium and iron, which are good for the heart.
Skin Health — Pumpkin is rich in vitamin A, E and C which are particularly good for healthy skin. These three vitamins protect the skin from damage. Vitamin C helps to build up collagen, which is good with a blood clots and helps with healing. Together with A, and E helps premature ageing.
Eye Health — Pumpkin is high in Vitamin A, Lutein and Zeaxanthin, the eye vitamin that helps prevents night blindness, and macular degeneration.
Immune Health — The beta carotene in pumpkin is good for the gut, which is linked to immune health. The beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A, a major function in gut flora. If the gut flora is actively stabilised, the immune system is strengthened.
Can Protect Against Cancer — The functions of vitamins A, C, and E, and Zinc in the body helps protects against breast or prostate cancer.
Health Health — Magnesium, iron and calcium are good to support health by lowering blood pressure and build up heart muscle.
The potassium in the seeds can lower the risk of stroke, kidney stones and diabetes, as well as boosting bone mineral density, thereby reducing the risk of osteoporosis.
Promotes Sound Sleep — The seeds contain tryptophan, a chemical responsible for making serotonin, a feel-good hormone that also promotes sound sleep and reduces depression.
Pumpkin Recipes
To get the whole benefit of pumpkin, eat whole, without any added sugar. The best recipes are those that serve you pure pumpkins like soups, baked, and plain diced pumpkins. It is best to avoid recipes like pumpkin pie, bread and muffins because of the added sugar. Pumpkin pulp can be used to make soup, desserts, pie and bread. See more recipes here.
As for the seeds, wash and pat dry, then sprinkle with salt, olive oil and black pepper (or chilli pepper if you prefer that). Spread out on oven tray, and roast at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, turning occasionally to prevent burning. The seeds will then be ready to eat.
What About Canned Pumpkin Puree?
There is a lot of variety of canned pumpkin puree in the market, for those unable to prepare their pumpkin soups and desserts from the fresh fruits. The puree is not 100 % pumpkins pulp but contains edible squash (flowers and shell).
This is not bad in itself as these have their nutritional benefits too, just that they may be nutritionally different.
How To Grow Pumpkin
Pumpkin is easy to grow from the seeds. Harvest out the seeds from the case, wash and plant in between the last week of May to the middle of June, ready for harvest in October. If planted too early, the tender seeds may soften and die out. Also, allow the soil to warm up a bit as cold and frost affect their growth.
Each pumpkin has about 500 hundred seeds, which are also edible by dry roasting to eat. However, it is better to leave some for replanting, if you are interested in farming out your own pumpkin for next year.
Dig up holes, (one inch deep), about 10 to 15 feet apart, and use about five seeds in a hole. You can set out the rows according to your space, allowing up to 10 to 15 feet apart. You can then merge two to three young plants in a larger hole dug out for the purpose.
Avoid using insecticides, to allow the bees to cross-pollinate on the flowers, and keep weeds off the plant all the time, and do not over-water, as they can survive in dry soil. Pumpkins are ready for harvest when they are in a deep solid colour, signifying that they are ready for harvesting.
Pumpkin Carving And The History Of Halloween
How do you view the traditional Halloween Festival? Are you one that believes it celebrates the occult, or do you view it as harmless fun? Let us see what history has to teach us about the Halloween Festival. However, its beginning has a religious connotation.
History has it that Pope Boneface IV, introduce a celebration, ‘’Hallotide’’ in the 7th Century, to commemorate the martyrs and saints. This was later changed to ‘All Saints Day’’.
All Saints Day was (was designated on every 1st November). And All Souls’ Day on the 2nd.
Prayers were said to those who have died and are already in heaven on All Saints Day. And on All Souls Day, on the following day, November 2nd, prayers were for those who have died but are trapped in purgatory, (a halfway route to paradise).
So on the eve of All Saints Day, October 31st, people termed it All Hallow Eve. All Hallow means Holy Man. Traditionally, people dress in regalia, going from house to house and receiving gifts, as the souls who have passed and visiting them for the last time.
Jack O’Lantern
However, in the traditional Celtic folklore, a man named Jack who used to taunt the devil dies, and as his punishment, the devil made him carve out the turnip (a popular vegetable then) and put burning coal as his light to roam about. The devil prevented him ascent, hence he was roaming the street.
So people generally then carve out vegetables, (potatoes, melons etc) with ugly faces and put them out of their windows to stop the roaming Jack O’Lantern from entering their houses.
This tradition was taken to Central America and Mexico, where there were traditionally plenty of pumpkins, and soon pumpkins are then used to stop Jack and other evils spirits from entering the houses.
Souling, Costumes And Bonfire
All these were introduced lately.
Souling is where children dress in scary or ghostly costumes, going about with offertory bowls, for donations, and offerings sweets in return. So also is the tradition of fireworks were introduced.
