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• Although pumpkin is a minor crop in North Carolina, many farmers plant between one and five acres as a source of additional income.
• Large growers in North Carolina plant between 10 and 100 acres of
  pumpkins and count on this crop as a portion of their annual income
• North Carolina growers plant many different varieties, including Mammoth Gold, Autumn Gold, Happy Jack, Big Max, Atlantic Giant, Prize Winner and Sugar Pie.
• Mammoth gold type pumpkins are capable of yeilding in excess of 20,000
  lbs. per acre.
• North Carolina pumpkin acreage has been estimated between 3,000 and 4,000 acres.
• The popular Jack-be-little pumpkin is actually a gourd and not a pumpkin.

• When Pilgrims arrived in the New World one of the many interesting discoveries they made was the Native American's use of pumpkins. It is known that American Indian tribes grew pumpkins to use as food many years before European explorers arrived. In fact, information relative to pumpkins dates back many centuries. Archaeologists in Mexico discovered pumpkin fragments that date back to 7000-5500 BC.
• The word pumpkin originates from the Greek word "pepon", meaning "large melon". The word "pepon" was pronounced in different languages several ways before the American colonists called it "pumpkin". Early Americans would slice off the pumpkin top, remove the seeds, fill it with milk, spices and syrup, and bake it for hours in hot ashes. Thus we have the first version of pumpkin pie. Settlers would also dry out slices of pumpkin and store them for later when the snow was high and food was hard to find.