HOW PUMPKINS BECAME AN AMERICAN OBSESSION
BY ELIZABETH NICHOLAS
Unless you’ve been living under the densest of rocks, you know that fall means one thing to many Americans: pumpkin spice latte season. The beloved Starbucks drink brings the retailer well over $100 million of sales revenue a year, and competitors find themselves trying to create their own iterations of the sweet fall drink. But Americans’ love for pumpkins doesn’t stop in latte form — pumpkin picking tops many a fall bucket list for Americans, and the pumpkin emoji is practically synonymous with autumn in the U.S. The American obsession with pumpkins is especially surprising given its inauspicious origins in American history. In colonial America, the pumpkin functioned as a “food of last resort,” as historian Cindy Ott told Time. Not only were pumpkins not quite as appetizing or filling as bread and beer, but pumpkins were also unknown in the colonies — colonists took their culinary cues from Europe, where there are a scant few pumpkins.
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