Why the Pumpkin You Carve Isn't the One You Eat

In 2007, Iowa tried to tax pumpkins as decorations — unless you signed a form promising to eat yours. The rule lasted one month. But a government doesn't write a rule like that unless something already happened to the thing it's taxing. This is the story of how America ended up growing two different pumpkins for two different purposes, and why almost nobody eats the one they buy. CHAPTERS 0:00 An Iowa form 1:32 Nobody agrees what a pumpkin is 3:19 The turnip myth 5:09 One farm in Massachusetts 6:26 A request nobody answered 7:30 Certificate 7200106 9:02 The same accident, three more times 11:05 The demand came first 12:31 The name on the paper 14:02 Eighty-five percent 16:03 What it means SOURCES Plant Variety Protection certificate 7200106. — Applied 20 March 1972, issued 31 May 1977. Variety: Howden. Species: Cucurbita pepo. Crop kind: pumpkin. Protection ran seventeen years and expired in May 1994. Applicant on the document: Bruce M. and Richard A. Howden. Plant Variety Protection certificate for Triple Treat, W. Atlee Burpee Company, issued 9 May 1977 — twenty-two days before the Howden. Burpee applied in April 1976; the Howdens applied in March 1972. FDA Compliance Policy Guide 585.725, "Pumpkin — Labeling Articles Made from Certain Varieties of Squash." — Records that canned pumpkin has long been packed from field pumpkin, from firm-shelled golden-fleshed sweet squash, and from deliberate mixtures of the two. The 1938 date is the FDA labeling policy; the 1957 date is the USDA grade standard for canned pumpkin and canned squash. Two agencies, two rules, one product. Neither is a mistake, and this video says so. Iowa Department of Revenue guidance to retailers, October 2007, and the repeal of 1 November 2007. Cindy Ott, Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon (University of Washington Press). — The 1867 Harper's Weekly image, and the sixty-five to seventy percent ornamental figure. USDA Economic Research Service. — Roughly eighty-five percent of American pumpkin acreage harvested for the fresh and ornamental market. This and Ott's figure are both given in the video with the source attached, because acres planted and production are not the same measurement. Hubbub (2024), United Kingdom. — Of around forty million pumpkins bought, more than half thrown out uneaten, over twenty thousand tonnes. The British figures are used because they come with a year, a research firm and a sample size. The American number that circulates does not, and the video leaves it out and says so. On the jack-o'-lantern: the term for a carved vegetable lantern appears in North America in 1837; American magazines printed pumpkin-carving instructions from 1842; the earliest recorded link to Halloween is 1866, in a Canadian newspaper. The Irish turnip custom is real and people in Ireland and Scotland genuinely did carve turnips. The video does not tell anyone they were foolish to believe the Stingy Jack version — it shows where the paper trail leads. The name on the certificate is not John Howden's. It is his two sons'. That is not a scandal and the video does not suggest anyone was cheated — it is the ordinary gap between the person who does the work and the person who signs the form. If you find an error, put it in the comments — I'll check it, and if it holds up I'll pin the correction. Secret Ingredient — the secret history behind everyday food. NEW EPISODE EVERY THURSDAY #foodhistory #pumpkin #history