With Halloween fast approaching, here some interesting facts you should know.

Pumpkins are the stars of October and inseparable part of Halloween. Every October carved pumpkins decorate our homes and doorsteps all over the world.

There’s a lot we can do with them, they top the list of fall food trends; they’re used to make coffee, yogurt, candies, cocktails, pies, muffins, pasta, breads, soups and so much more.

You can bake, roast, steam or event boil a pumpkin and they are a great source of fiber, vitamins and minerals.

To satisfy our reader’s curiosity, DublinKids has compiled a list of the most interesting facts relating to fall’s favorite and most crafty food.

Test your family’s knowledge this fall. Have fun entertaining your family and friends with these pumpkin facts.

17 PUMPKIN FACTS (you probably didn’t know of)

1. The name pumpkin comes from the Greek word ‘pepon’, meaning ‘large melon’.

2. Pumpkins are native to Mexico and grown on every continent except for Antarctica.

3. Pumpkins are 90% water.

This is no surprise as they come from the same family as the watermelon and cucumber. This makes them low calorie fruit.

4. Pumpkin flowers, leaves and seeds are all edible.

You can eat every single part of a pumpkin: the skin, seeds, leaves, flowers, pulp and even the stem!

5. Pumpkin has only 26 calories for every 100 grams!

6. Pumpkin is a fruit.

Pumpkin is a squash and a member of the gourd family; the same family as melons, cucumbers and zucchini. While technically a fruit, pumpkins are generally treated as a vegetable in most recipes.

7. Pumpkin is the largest known fruit in the world.

8. Pumpkins are usually orange in color, but can also be yellow, white, green or red.

9. Each pumpkin has about 500 seeds.

10. It takes between 90 -120 days to grow a pumpkin. 

11. There are more that 45 different varieties.

While the round orange pumpkin is the most common, pumpkins come in many different shapes, sizes, and colours. Some of the most popular pumpkin varieties are: Hooligan, Cinderella, Cotton Candy, Orange Smoothie and Wee-Be-Little a miniature pumpkin varietal.

12. Pumpkins are high in fiber, contain Vitamin A, Vitamin B, potassium, protein, manganese and iron. Pumpkin seeds are also a source of omega-3 fatty acids.

13. Turnips and potatoes were pumpkin’s predecessors for Halloween lanterns.

A carved pumpkin illuminated by candles is known as a ‘jack-o-lantern’. The tradition comes from the Irish, which at first used turnips and potatoes for it. When Irish emigrants brought their customs to America, they discovered pumpkins to be much easier to carve.

14. The word “pumpkin” appeared for the first time in the fairytale Cinderella.

A French explorer in 1584 first called them “gros melons,” which translates into Latin as “pepon,” which means large melon. It wasn’t until the 17th century that they were first referred to as pumpkins.

15. Pumpkin in literature.

Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage is the most famous, but the fruit also appears in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow” and Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor.”

16. Pumpkins vary in weight but on average they are between 12 and 18 pounds.

17. The World’s heaviest pumpkin weighed an astonishing 2,624.6 pounds.

Mathias Willemijns (Belgium) had his gigantic crop authenticated by the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth on 9 October 2016. Congratulations to Mathia!