You can use them in pies, muffins, soups, and savory dishes. You can roast the seeds and enjoy them with a little sea salt, or go all out and add chili powder and garlic to them. You can store them for months and you can use them as decorations. You can even put candles in them and light up your porch. They come in an array of colors, too. Many of them are reddish-orange, but you can also find them in shades of blue, white, tan, green, and even black. Of course, we’re talking about the beloved pumpkin.

Pumpkins are endlessly enjoyable in real life, but some of us may remember the magic of pumpkins in movies like Cinderella, shows like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and tales like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, in which the Headless Horseman uses a pumpkin in place of his missing head.

Whether you’re carving a jack-o’-lantern or making a decadent Pumpkin Crème Brûlée, pumpkins are an absolute joy to have in the garden and in the kitchen. And what better month to celebrate pumpkins–along with winter squash and beets–than October!

The October issue of Food Gardening Magazine is an exciting exploration of these delightful fall fruits (that’s right, I said fruits!) Here’s a look at what’s on the menu in this edition of Food Gardening Magazine.

Food Gardening with Amanda articles—Food Gardening Network’s Senior Editor and Producer Amanda MacArthur is one fabulous food gardener! She takes gardening seriously, makes it fun, and delivers some great content—including companion videos to show you, not just tell you, exactly what to do. Check out these helpful articles from Amanda this month:

• 5 Vegetables to Plant in October: I know October might not seem like the most obvious gardening season, but there are still plenty of vegetables that love the cool days of autumn.
• How to Start Saving and Cooking Pumpkin Seeds: Whether you want to plant them or eat them, there are some good reasons to save pumpkin seeds, and it’s fun project once you’ve finished carving a jack-o’-lantern.
• The Best Pumpkins to Grow for Carving & Tricks for the Ultimate Jack-o’-lantern: Did you know that the first jack-o’-lanterns weren’t pumpkins, but turnips? Hard to imagine, I know! Pumpkins are so much easier to carve, especially when you have one of these varieties.
• Pumpkin Grilled Cheese with Caramelized Onions and Bacon: I love writing these articles, but sometimes they really do make me hungry. This Pumpkin Grilled Cheese might just be the ultimate autumn comfort food. This recipe calls for Gruyère, but try it with a good sharp cheddar, too. Heaven on a plate!
• A Giant Pumpkin Tale: This article comes from our sister publication, GreenPrints Magazine. In it, writer Jan Canyon shares the joys and disappointments of growing her very own giant pumpkin.
• 6 Tips for Storing Pumpkins: Growing pumpkins is a relatively straightforward affair. Moreover, the culinary possibilities—be it baking, souping, or freezing—are almost endless. Yet, their storage might baffle some. So, here are six storage tips tailored for pumpkins to ensure their freshness for a longer time.

And this issue of Food Gardening Magazine includes details on three featured foods this month—concurrently with publishing this issue of our magazine, we’re also publishing and updating three gardening guides on pumpkins, winter squash, and beets. As a premium member of Food Gardening Network, you get full access to the magazine and these gardening guides:

Pumpkins: Did you know that pumpkins are native to the Western Hemisphere, but today you can find them growing on every continent except Antarctica? Pumpkins are big business, too, with commercial farms producing somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 billion pounds of pumpkins every year! That’s a lot of pumpkin pie! Find out more about growing this eye-catching gourd in Pumpkinpalooza: How to Start Your Own Pumpkin Patch!

Winter Squash: You probably know about acorn, butternut, and spaghetti squash. You may have enjoyed a dish of Delicata squash or delighted in a pie made with Hubbard squash. But did you know there are hundreds of varieties of winter squash? Honeynut, butterbush, buttercup, Goldetti spaghetti, and sunshine are just a sample of the delicious-sounding (and tasting!) varieties of winter squash you can grow. Learn more in Winning Winter Squash!

Beets: Beets need better PR if you ask me. These delicious vegetables have long been met with frowns at the table. That’s truly unfortunate, as you can grate these fantastic veggies for a sweet raw addition to salads. You can roast them with some olive oil and salt for a rich side dish, and beet greens are not only edible, but delicious! Find out more about growing this cool-weather crop in Beautiful Beets!

Here are some interesting tidbits about the foods you’ll find in these gardening guides to get you thinking about what you might want to plant in your garden.

• Looking for a “traditional” pumpkin pie? The earliest sweet pumpkin dishes involved filling a scooped-out pumpkin with ginger-spiced milk and then roasting it by the fire—next to the roasting seeds. Prior to that, a common way to prepare pumpkins was to cut the flesh into strips and roast it.
• Squash was domesticated about 10,000 years ago by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. And researchers have found evidence of pumpkin seeds in Mexico dating back 7,000 years! Mexico is considered the origin point of this now wildly diverse genus.
• Beets, then called sea beets, were first cultivated along the coast of the Mediterranean by Greeks and Romans. They cultivated the vegetable for their leaves and called them teutlon or teutlion, because the foliage resembled squid tentacles. It wasn’t until the mid-1500s when the root part of the beet was cultivated for eating in Germany or Italy.

In this edition of Food Gardening Magazine, you’ll find Gardening Guide Close-Ups that focus on pumpkins, winter squash, and beets to help get you started with these three foods and our gardening guides. These articles give you valuable tips and advice about these three foods, and you’ll have instant access to the premium gardening guides themselves, too. Be first to read these Gardening Guide Close-Ups and get a head start on how to grow and use these foods:

• As much as we love pumpkin muffins and pumpkin pie around here, there’s a lot more you can do with this versatile gourd! How about pumpkin chili or pumpkin butter? Or maybe you’re ready to try pickled pumpkin rinds! In How to Use Pumpkins in Unique Ways, we’ll look at seven fun and unique ways to use pumpkins this season.
•  If you grow winter squash, you’ve almost certainly seen it. Those broad, lush leaves begin to look like they’re coated in a fine white powder. Then the mildew spreads like wildfire, and the leaves shrivel up and die, leaving your winter squash stunted, discolored, and not nearly as flavorful as it should be. In 25 Types of Powdery Mildew-Resistant Squash, we’ll review 25 varieties of winter squash in a variety of types that you can grow without the worry of powdery mildew.
• Beets are generally good neighbors in the garden, but these six companion plants are some of beets’ best friends. Check out Beets Companion Plants for the Garden, to find out what to grow with your beets.

And then there are the recipes you’ll find in the three gardening guides! Here are some of my favorites that are tasty, unique, and easy to make:

• Picture Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes: It’s tough to choose just one pumpkin recipe to highlight here. There’s the Pumpkin Crème Brûlée I mentioned earlier, and, of course, roasted pumpkin seeds. But the Picture Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes pair so well with maple syrup (that other sweet autumn delicacy!) that I think you really will love these. Start your day with a delicious, fluffy taste of the ultimate fall treat.
• Winter Squash Blossom Soup: There’s nothing like a bowl of steaming soup to make a chilly day feel cozy and warm. Along with the delicious, nutritious, and colorful squash and squash blossoms, this soup boasts an intricate flavor palette of pear, onion, garlic, and ginger.
• Beet Brownies: Who’s ready for some healthy and decadent dessert? Seriously, don’t ignore this recipe just because it’s full of antioxidants, healthy nitrates, and plenty of nutrients. These brownies are rich, velvety-smooth, and super chocolatey.

I hope you enjoy the October 2023 issue of Food Gardening Magazine as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together. We’re so happy to have you here! Now let’s head out to the garden!

Happy harvesting—and happy eating!

Bill Dugan
Editor & Publisher

P.S. Please enjoy this issue of Food Gardening Magazine, and let me know what you think about it by commenting below with your feedback! Your input is valuable to us and can help us make improvements.