We are in the waning days of pumpkin season. I’ve consumed pumpkin spice lattes, cake and even lager. Now, we are looking forward to Thanksgiving and eating pumpkin pie. Before we transition to eggnog and candy canes, let’s celebrate all things pumpkin with some little-known facts.

Pumpkin is a fruit. Technically, pumpkin, squash, zucchini and cucumber are all botanical fruits because they developed from a pollinated flower and contain seeds. From a cook’s viewpoint, pumpkin is hard to definitively classify as a vegetable or fruit because it can be prepared either as a sweet dessert or a savory dish such as soup.

All pumpkin varieties are squash but not all squash are pumpkins. Squash is a broader category that encompasses three or four commonly grown species in the Cucurbita genus.

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