Pumpkin power!

We’ve been busy researching the history of the pumpkin…

The pumpkin is thought to have originated in North America, but it was 19th century Ireland that gave us the famous carved pumpkins as a symbol of Halloween.

Back then turnips or mangel wurzels hollowed out to act as lanterns and carved with grotesque faces were used in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Halloween was also the festival of Samhain and was seen as a time when supernatural beings and the souls of the dead roamed Earth. The lanterns represented the spirits or supernatural beings, or were used to ward off evil spirits.

Carved, lit pumpkins were also made at Halloween in Somerset during the 19th century for ‘Punkie Night’, which was a custom practiced on the last Thursday of October where children marched around pumpkins singing the Punkie song.

If you want to grow a pumpkin ready for next year’s Halloween celebrations so you can have a ‘Punkie Night’ of your own, sow seeds indoors from April to May then acclimatise plants to outdoor conditions over 10 days before transplanting into warm, well-drained soil in a sheltered spot. 

Keep well-watered until established and feed with fertiliser a few weeks after planting. Harvest before the first frosts.