Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. It’s a time to be thankful for our friends and family, our good fortune, and for some, the end of pumpkin spice season.
The pumpkin, first cultivated by humans in the Americas as many as 9,000 years ago, was one of the first foods taken back to Europe. Cookbooks in Great Britain already had recipes for pumpkin (or pumpion, as it was called) custards with pastry crust in the 17th century. Surely winter squash such as pumpkin figured in early American harvest meals.
