When did New Jersey need so many types of pumpkins?

The pumpkin most of us grew up with is called an heirloom pumpkin.

It's the most common type you'll see everywhere this time of year. And I mean everywhere.

From garden centers and farm markets to supermarkets, convenience stores and, yes, even at some pharmacies.

You'll also see every variety of gourd in every shape and color imaginable.

The pumpkin is technically a gourd. It is native to North America, but primarily Northeastern Mexico and the Southern United States.

But farmers have adapted growing techniques to be able to cultivate them just about everywhere, including here in New Jersey.

There are 150 varieties of pumpkins, and it seems we have all of them at most farm stands here in the Garden State.

New Jersey farmers dedicate about 2,500 acres each year to growing pumpkins.

We have a long-standing tradition of picking pumpkins, carving and decorating pumpkins and even cooking and eating the seeds.

It's beautiful to see all the colorful varieties of the gourds at the markets but we have TOO MANY CHOICES, as usual with just about everything in our world today.

There are white pumpkins, red pumpkins, flat pumpkins, they even have a mellow yellow pumpkin.

I love to see the beautiful shapes and colors, but maybe some of us just long for simpler times when a pumpkin just looked like a pumpkin.

Most of what you'll see growing in farm fields here in New Jersey are the typical heirloom, jack-o-lantern type. Here's where you can pick your own this year in the great Garden State.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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