ISSUE 98, EDIBLE SEEDS, Part 4: Pumpkin

Pumpkin Seed

Anyone travelling in the Southwest will encounter snack packets of roasted pumpkin seed “Pepitas” on the rack of convenience stores. One can get them hulled or unhulled. They sell relatively well, particularly to Hispanic customers. Candied pumpkin seeds made up one of the oldest of traditional southern candies, being sold in the streets of San Antonia throughout the 19^th century. It is one of the four old southern candies: groundnut cakes (peanut), pralines (pecan), benne candy (sesame), and pepitoria (pumpkin seed). In San Antonio pumpkin seeds jutted out of the perimeter the classic lunette of colored sugary wafer drizzled on the interior with honey or caramel. Curiously, this confection switched pecans for pumpkin seeds in the 1890s while retaining the old name.

Most pumpkins generate an ample number of seeds. These seeds are relatively easy to process, whether being pressed for oil, hulled and roasted for snacks, or ground into powder/paste. Certain of the preparations made from processed pumpkin seeds have passed into the limbo of forgetfulness, for instance the old New England dish, pumpkin seed pie. This was made from powder pumpkin seed meats.

Far more common were the several methods of roasting and salting pumpkin seeds, in which the fat employed in the skillet or roasting pan added a dimension lacking in dry roasted seeds. The Muskogee favored duck fat, the Cherokee bear fat, and settlers, lard. Yet it has to be said that Euro-American settlers tended not to snack on the seeds as much as employ them as fowl feed, just as they often employed the pumpkins themselves as fodder for cattle and hogs.

Pumpkin seed oil has long been used as a cosmetic lipid to refresh skin. Because it is a splendid source of zinc, it has important health benefits when ingested. But seek out the cold pressed, unprocessed oils (they tend to have rich color, sometimes almost purple). Oliver Farms in Pitts GA offers an excellent one. A tablespoonful a day imparts a rich array of minerals and fatty acids into your system.