Pumpkins bring out the kid in all of us. Just look around your neighbourhood, and you will surely see a variety of them decorating front porches.

A few years ago, I was visiting a farm in Oklahoma, and our guide pointed out a fenced-off field filled with pumpkins — grown solely for the lady of the house who loved to decorate with them. The dinner she hosted that night saw a huge barn glitzed up with hundreds of pumpkins, very festive indeed.

With Halloween just ahead, let’s take a closer look at this ever-popular fruit, with notes from National Garden Bureau .

As a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, pumpkins are related to squash, cucumbers and melons. Most varieties we classify as pumpkins belong to the species Cucurbita pepo, which includes varieties of winter squash, summer squas

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