Western mountains and high plains. November 2013 Fun squash Facts.

cheyannarach 11/1/2013, 7:35 pm

I thought this might make a fun November thread for everyone to participate in, with holidays approaching I thought it would be fun to share fun facts about one of Thanksgivings favorite fruits, SQUASH! I will start with a fun one I just learned.

For pie, Pilgrims first hollowed out a pumpkin, filled it with apples, sugar, spices and milk, then put the stem back on and baked.

I had no idea but as much as I love pumpkin pie this doesn't sound like a bad idea. hungry

cheyannarach 11/4/2013, 12:39 am

Here's another one!

Squash are used in cosmetics for dry and sensitive skin and in treating schistosomiasis.

**Turan** 11/4/2013, 12:53 pm

That was fascinating to read about. Here is a quote about pumpkin seeds specifically (though I bet any sort of squash seed would be similar enough for this)

Pumpkin seeds: Pumpkin seeds (Cucurbita pepo) have purported effects against tapeworms. Pumpkins and other squashes are native to North and Central America, but have since been cultivated around the world (Oliver et al., 2003). The seeds are primarily used in herbal medicine; the yellow blossoms of pumpkins are also used as medicine in some native. Active constituents: Pumpkin seeds contain several major groups of active constituents: essential fatty acids, amino acids, phytosterols (e.g., beta-sitosterol) minerals and vitamins. Other major constituents include mucilaginous carbohydrates and minerals (Sheir et al., 2001). Curcurbitin is a constituent in pumpkin seeds that has shown anti-parasitic activity. In China, pumpkin seeds have been shown to effectively treat acute Schistosomiasis, a severe parasitic disease occurring primarily in Asia and Africa that is transmitted by snails (Weiss, 1985). wrote:

Natural Products as Therapeutic Agents for Schistosomiasis

cheyannarach 11/4/2013, 12:58 pm

Thanks for posting Turan! I love reading and learning fun stuff like this, just when you think a pumpkin is just for pie and jack-o-lanterns!

**camprn** 11/4/2013, 1:23 pm

Turan wrote:Schistosomiasis

Bleck!

**Turan** 11/4/2013, 1:41 pm

camprn wrote:
Turan wrote:Schistosomiasis
Bleck!

I remembering being told by some old timer cowboy back in the 70s that cows and horses should be fed lots of pumpkin and squash in the fall/winter to clean them of parasites. I categorized it as 'Old Cowboy Tale' which is related to 'Old Wives Tale' but with more exaggeration. It is cool finding they actually had a seed of reality. I had a horse that had been infected by lung flukes while grazing on low lying pasture. This is before ivomectin.

**camprn** 11/4/2013, 6:24 pm

I know that pumpkins are often fed to livestock around where I am.

cheyannarach 11/6/2013, 2:10 am

That's neat! I didn't know that!

I remember on a catering gig I did the host gave me a recipe for a salad (the theme was pumpkin), every course has some type of pumpkin in it. The salad had pepitas so I googled it not knowing what they were and coudn't find them at the store. So I bought a bag of pumpkin seeds and cracked them for the seed inside, I never knew that it had a seperate seed inside, lol. Am I the only person that didn't know this? (It took hours to hull those things, ugh)

**Turan** 11/6/2013, 11:50 am

We used to always roast the pumpkin seeds and then crack and eat them at Halloween. I am intrigued now to see that lots of people eat the whole thing. I do love pepitas in stews and rice and well, anywhere I might put a sunflower seed. There is a whole line of pumpkins that grow hull less seeds. I tried growing some from seed a friend passed along to me but keeping it from cross pollinating just did not happen. I think I gave one of those seeds to Nonni in hopes she would do better.

My puppy (she just turned 2 and behaves like a 2yo kid) got bored, nervous, anxious while we were gone the other day. Instead of chewing on a bone like she usually would she ate a whole Potimorran squash. Shocked

cheyannarach 11/9/2013, 1:28 pm

Haha, hungry puppy! That's funny!

I am going to look into getting some of those pumpkins, with any luck at all I will have my garden moved and fenced in so the deer don't eat them before we get to carve them!

mschaef 11/11/2013, 10:46 pm

My kids love pumpkin muffins which I make from pumpkins that I have cooked in the oven and pureed the 'meat'.

Now for my fun/ interesting fact: Different types of pumpkins have different amounts of water in them. For instance recipes call for pie pumpkin which has less water in it. But you can use any type of pumpkin just set the cooked "meat" in cheese cloth/ strainer over a bowl and let the water drain out of it over night. You will be amazed or at least I was at how much water drained off.

cheyannarach 11/11/2013, 10:53 pm

I always wondered what the difference was! Thanks Mschaef! I love everything pumpkin!!

mschaef 11/17/2013, 5:46 pm

Here is another fun fact the I have learned...pumpkins and other gourdes can last 6-8 months on the counter before going bad. So far my dwarf pumpkins have made it 2 months. Just haven't gotten around to cooking them up yet.

cheyannarach 11/18/2013, 4:54 pm

I didn't know pumpkins would last that long! I have some cute little grimlin gourds that we grew this summer, they didn't grow ripe because I had to pull them early and save them from a hail storm. So far they have been in here for 3 months and still look great, I will have to see how long they last!

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