Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
…because pumpkins are turned into jack o’lanterns. 
We’ve got rutabagas here, but it as it happens, the native pumpkin is better for jack o’lanterns. Better size, better shape. |
Worse than pineapple on pizza or red wine with fish.
Jack O'Lanterns are Irish and made hundreds of years before Americans adopted pumpkins.
From the American Encyclopaedia that killed off the paper & CD versions:
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A jack-o'-lantern (or jack o'lantern) is a carved lantern, most commonly made from a pumpkin, or formerly a root vegetable such as a mangelwurzel, rutabaga or turnip.[1] Jack-o'-lanterns are associated with the Halloween holiday. Its name comes from the phenomenon of strange lights flickering over peat bogs, called jack-o'-lanterns (also known as will-o'-the-wisps). It is suggested that the name also has ties to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who bargains with Satan and is doomed to roam the Earth with only a hollowed turnip to light his way.
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And at least the scooped out "neeps" tastes of something and has nutrition. We simply used a table knife and spoon at about age 6. No need for sharp knives.
Also the other Celtic tradition is that it's a goblin's head. A pumpkin is not like a head and doesn't last as well and is more fragile.
Such a waste of resource growing them here as almost no-one in Ireland eats pumpkin.
EDIT
October 2023. A spoon and vegetable peeling knife used.
and in daylight
