Pumpkin Seed Oil


Pumpkin Seed Oil - Directory & Reference Resources

Pumpkin seed oil-From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pumpkin seed oil (Kernöl, or Kürbiskernöl) is a culinary specialty of Styria (Austria), and a European Union Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product. It is made by pressing the roasted skinless seeds of a local variety of pumpkins, the "Styrian Oil Pumpkin" (lat. Cucurbita pepo var. styriaca, also known as var. oleifera). Today the oil is an important export commodity of Styria but it has been produced and used in its southern parts at least since the 18th century. The earliest confirmed record of oil pumpkin seeds in Styria (from the estate of a farmer in Gleinstätten) dates to February 18, 1697. Pumpkin seed oil is also produced in eastern and northern parts of Slovenia, namely Prekmurje and the former Lower Styria (Spodnja Štajerska) region.

The viscous oil is dark green to dark brown in colour. Brown oil has a bitter taste. Used together with yoghurt the color turns to bright green and is sometimes referred to as "Green Gold". Pumpkin seed oil has a very intense nutty taste and is very healthy due to its richness in polyunsaturated fatty acids. However, traditional claims based on local folk medicine regarding its usefulness in the prevention and treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia have not been clinically proven according to the criteria of evidence-based medicine.

Other types of pumpkin seed oil are also marketed worldwide by online shops. International producers use white seeds with shells and this produces a cheaper white oil. New producers of seeds are located in China and India.

Pumpkin-From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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For the film, see Pumpkin (film).

Pumpkins

Pumpkin attached to a stalk

Common "Giant" Pumpkin variety.A pumpkin is a squash fruit, usually orange in color when ripe (although there are also white, red, and gray varieties). Pumpkins grow as a gourd from a trailing vine of the genus Cucurbita (family Cucurbitaceae). Cultivated in North America, continental Europe, Australia, India and some other countries, Cucurbita species include Curcurbita pepo, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita mixta, and Cucurbita moschata — all plants native to the Western hemisphere. The pumpkin varies greatly in form, being sometimes nearly globular, but more generally oblong or ovoid in shape. The rind is smooth and variable in colour. The larger kinds acquire a weight of 40 to 80 lb (18 to 36 kg) but smaller varieties are in vogue for garden culture. Pumpkins are a popular food, with their insides commonly eaten cooked and served in dishes such as pumpkin pie; the seeds can be roasted as a snack. Pumpkins are traditionally used to carve Jack-o'-lanterns for use in Halloween celebrations.

Botanically it is a fruit, referring to a plant part which grows from a flower; however, it is widely regarded as a vegetable in culinary terms, referring to how it is eaten.

Butternut squash is called "butternut pumpkin" in Australia, and "neck pumpkin" in parts of Pennsylvania, where it is commonly regarded as a pumpkin and used in similar ways to other pumpkin.

Contents

1 Cultivation

2 Pumpkin seeds

3 Cooking

4 Pumpkin trivia

5 Activities involving pumpkins

5.1 Halloween

5.2 Chucking

5.3 Pumpkin festivals

6 See also

7 References

8 External links

 Cultivation

 The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.

Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Pumpkins growing in a field.

Immature Female Pumpkin Flower

Pumpkin Flower (Open)Pumpkins have historically been pollinated by the native squash bee Peponapis pruinosa, but this bee has declined, probably due to pesticide sensitivity, and today most commercial plantings are pollinated by honeybees. One hive per acre (4,000 m² per hive) is recommended by the US Department of Agriculture. Gardeners with a shortage of bees, however, often have to hand pollinate.

Inadequately pollinated pumpkins usually start growing but abort before full development. Often there is an opportunistic fungus that the gardener blames for the abortion, but the solution to this problem tends to be better pollination rather than fungicide.

Pumpkins are grown today in the US more for decoration than for food, and popular contests continually lead growers to vie for the world record for the largest pumpkin ever grown. Growers have many techniques, often secretive, including hand pollination, removal from the vines of all but one pumpkin, and injection of fertilizer or even milk directly into the vines with a hypodermic needle.

Pumpkins have male and female flowers, the latter distinguished by the small ovary at the base of the petals. The bright, colorful flowers are short-lived and may open for as little as one day.

Pumpkins are often used as forms of entertainment for children and adults alike, around Halloween.

 Pumpkin seeds

The hulled or semi-hulled seeds of pumpkins can be roasted and eaten as a snack, similar to the sunflower seed. Pumpkin seeds can be prepared for eating by first separating them from the orange pumpkin flesh, then coating them in a generally salty sauce (Worcestershire sauce, for example), after which the seeds are distributed upon a baking sheet, and then cooked in an oven at a relatively low temperature for a long period of time.

Pumpkin seeds are a good source of iron, zinc, essential fatty acids, potassium, and magnesium. Pumpkin seeds may also promote prostate health since components in pumpkin seed oil appears to interrupt the triggering of prostate cell multiplication by testosterone and DHT.[1] Removing the white hull of the pumpkin seed reveals an edible, green-colored seed inside that is commonly referred to as a pepita in North and South America.

Austria is a well-known producer of pumpkin seed oil.

 Cooking

When ripe, the pumpkin can be boiled, baked, or roasted, or made into various kinds of pie, a traditional staple of American Thanksgiving, alone or mixed with other fruit; while small and green it may be eaten in the same way as the vegetable marrow. It can also be eaten mashed or incorporated into soup.

 Pumpkin trivia

The pumpkin is related to the zucchini (courgette).

The largest pumpkin on record weighed 1502 lbs (666 kg). The largest pumpkins are really squash, Cucurbita maxima. They were culminated from the hubbard squash genotype by enthusiast farmers through intermittent effort since the mid 1800s. As such germplasm is commercially provocative, a U.S. legal right was granted for the rounder phenotypes, levying them as constituting a variety, with the appellation "Atlantic Giant." Processually this phenotype graduated back into the public domain, except now it had the name Atlantic Giant on its record (see USDA PVP # 8500204).

Pumpkins are orange because they contain massive amounts of lutein, alpha- and beta-carotene. These nutrients turn to vitamin A in the body.

 Activities involving pumpkins

 Halloween

A pumpkin carved into a Jack-o'-lantern for Halloween.

Painted mini pumpkins on display in Ottawa, Canada.Using pumpkins as lanterns at Halloween is based on an ancient Celtic custom brought to America by Irish immigrants. All Hallows Eve on 31 October marked the end of the old Celtic calendar year, and on that night hollowed-out turnips, beets and rutabagas with candles inside them were placed on windowsills and porches to welcome home the spirits of deceased ancestors and ward off evil spirits and a restless soul called "Stingy Jack," hence the name "Jack-o-lantern".

 Chucking

Pumpkin chucking is a competitive activity in which teams build various mechanical devices designed to throw a pumpkin as far as possible. Catapults, trebuchets, ballistas and air cannons are the most common mechanisms. Some pumpkin chuckers grow special varieties of pumpkin, bred and grown under special conditions intended to improve the pumpkin's chances of surviving being thrown.

 Pumpkin festivals

Pumpkin growers often compete to see whose pumpkins are the most massive. Festivals are often dedicated to the pumpkin and these competitions.

Half Moon Bay, California, holds the annual Pumpkin and Arts Festival which includes the World Champion Pumpkin Weigh-Off. Farmers from all over the west compete to determine who can grow the greatest gourd [2]. The winning pumpkin regularly tops the scale at more than 1200 pounds. The Pumpkin Festival draws over 250,000 visitors each year [3]

Morton, Illinois, the self-declared pumpkin capital of the world,[4], has held a Pumpkin Festival since 1966. The town, where Nestlé's pumpkin packing plant is located (and where 90% of canned pumpkins eaten in the US are processed[5]), hosts a variety of activities during the Pumpkin Festival, including carnival games and pumpkin-related food.[4] In 2006, 70,000 people attended the festival.

 See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

PumpkinCircleville Pumpkin Show

List of vegetables

Pumpkin Fest

Pumpkin Queens

Vegetable juice

 References

^ World Healthies Foods

^ [1]Gargantuan Gourd Weigh-Off

^ [2]History of Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival

^ a b Morton Pumpkin Festival

^ Hecho en Illinois, Chicago Reader

Pumpkin seeds on The worlds Healthiest Foods, The George Mateljan Foundation.

Illinois Leads Nation in Pumpkin Production, Illinois Department of Agriculture.

The Largest Pumpkin Ever, bigpumpkins.com.

Keene Pumpkin Festival, list of world records.

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