Pumpkin comes from the Greek word peptone meaning large melon. Pumpkins are native to North America. The French colonists discovered native Americans growing pumpkins when they began to colonise North America, and they called them ‘pumion’. It was this word that was adopted by English-American colonists who changed it first to ‘pumpion’ and then to pumpkin.

Squashes (which include pumpkins) range in weight between over 400kg (1000Ibs), and less than half a kilo (1 pound). Pumpkins are towards the heavy end of squashes, ranging normally from 4kg (9lbs) to over 30kg (70lbs). However, the people who go in for world records leave the ‘normal’ pumpkin way behind. The world record for a pumpkin in 2012 stood at 821kg (1810lbs). That is nearly a ton!