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Oklahoma Agriculture in the Classroom

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Food & Fun Recipes

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients
  • seeds from one pumpkin
  • salt
  • spray vegetable oil
  • knife
  • steamer
  • towel
  • cookie sheet
Instruction
  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
  2. Cut pumpkin in half.
  3. Remove seeds by scraping pulp from the pumpkin with a large spoon.
  4. Rinse seeds in a colander, and pick seeds from the pulp.
  5. Place seeds in the top of a vegetable steamer with water in the bottom.
  6. Cover and cook for 30 minutes.
  7. Dry the seeds with a towel.
  8. Spread seeds on a cookie sheet, spray with vegetable oil and sprinkle with salt.
  9. Bake the seeds for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Pumpkin Trivia

  • Pumpkins originated in Central America.
  • Native Americans called pumpkins "isqoutm," their word for "squash."
  • The pumpkin is one of only a few foods we still eat today that is native to North America.
  • Pumpkins were a main part of the daily diet for the Pilgrims and other early New England settlers. Dried pumpkin shells served as bowls for storing grains and seeds. Native Americans flattened strips of pumpkins, dried them and made mats from them. Pumpkin seeds were food and medicine for Native Americans.
  • Colonists made the first pumpkin pies by slicing off pumpkin tops, removing the seeds and filling the insides with milk, spices and honey, then baking it all in hot ashes. Pumpkins were also used in the crust.
  • The pumpkin is a vegetable, related to squash. It is high in fiber and contains potassium and Vitamin A.
  • Some kinds of pumpkins are grown for cattle to eat.
  • The largest pumpkin pie ever made was over five feet in diameter and weighed over 350 pounds. It used 80 pounds of cooked pumpkin, 36 pounds of sugar, 12 dozen eggs and took six hours to bake.
  • The tradition of carving pumpkins at Halloween started with the Irish, but the original jack-o-lanterns were made from turnips. When the Irish immigrated to the U.S., they found pumpkins a plenty, and they were much easier to carve.
  • Pumpkins range in size from less than a pound to over 1,000 pounds. The town of Roffstown, New Hampshire, holds an annual pumpkin regatta each October, in which giant pumpkins are hollowed out to make room for a single passenger, then fitted with trolling motors and paraded on the Piscataquog River.