Pumpkin spiked

Long before pumpkins were a symbol of Halloween, they were a staple foodstuff of Indigenous peoples of the Americas with preparations varying among tribal nations. European colonists adopted pumpkins into their crops and diets after encountering their use in the Americas. Pumpkin dishes range from savoury to sweet, with pie recipes more numerous than varieties of pumpkin plant species in the genus Cucurbita. By 1796, the American ‘pumpkin pie had evolved into a familiar form that we would recognize today’. The next 150 years would see pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns join pumpkin pie as an autumnal hallmark – long before the pumpkin spice latte. Most of the billion-plus pounds of pumpkins harvested in the US go towards home processing or seasonal ornamentation like pies and jack-o’-lanterns. Pumpkin sweets and smiling pumpkins haunt the ‘spooky season’, offering more goodwill than genuine scares. But during one season in the 1880s, a heartwarming tradition turned into a horror story due to a poisoned pumpkin pie.