Smashing Pumpkin Myths: What’s Big, Orange, and Having an Identity Crisis?

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It’s already begun: that time of the year now known across the land as Decorative Gourd Season. Squash are everywhere—carved into jack o’lanterns on front porches, adorning our sideboards and porches with strange shapes and autumn colors, and of course, baked into pies for fall celebrations. But get ready to rethink squash, because despite their slightly cheesy House Beautiful vibe and family-friendly pumpkin patch associations, they are—and we quote—"the most interesting plants in the world." Join us this episode as we explore our surprisingly long entanglement with the cucurbit family, from its star role as the very first plant domesticated in the Americas to the can of Libby's behind nine out of every ten pumpkin pies. Along the way, we figure out what on Earth the difference actually is between a squash and a pumpkin, and we get a sneak peek into the weird and wonderful world of giant pumpkins, where growers compete to break the two-ton barrier with fruits the size of a compact car.

Episode Notes

Lori Shapiro

Lori Shapiro is a former postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, where she studied the relationship between insects and cucurbits. Today, she runs Sueños Heirloom Chocolate.

Alejandra Domic

Alejandra Domic is an associate research professor in anthropology at Penn State. Her paper on the oldest discovered squash remains (a rind dated to between 11,150 and 10,765 years old) is titled "Archaeobotanical evidence supports indigenous cucurbit long-term use in the Mesoamerican Neotropics."

Ancient remnants of squash found in the El Gigante Rockshelter in Honduras, including rind (A and B), stalk (C and D), and seeds (E, F, and G). (Image credit: Domic et. al.)
Alejandra's illustration of what the squashes that left these remains at El Gigante rock shelter may have looked like thousands of years ago. (Image credit: Alejandra Domic)

Cindy Ott

Cindy Ott is a professor of history and material culture at the University of Delaware and the author of Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon.

Adam Alexander

Adam Alexander is the author of The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables.

Left, Dave Stelts (to the left of the pumpkin) and fellow pumpkin grower Tim Parks jump for joy as Dave's pumpkin hits a record-breaking weight of 1,140 pounds in Ohio in 2000; right, Dave in 2011 with his 1,807.5-pound pumpkin, which fell just four pounds short of the world record that year. (Image credit: left, kilrpumpkins; right, Dave Stelts.)

Dave Stelts

With his wife Carol, Dave Stelts runs Dave and Carol's Valley of the Giants, where they grow giant (and sometimes world record-setting) pumpkins. To see what happens to some giant pumpkins like Dave's after the weigh-off is done, enjoy this video from the Oregon zoo of elephants smashing some elephant-sized squash.