60 Fun Facts About Fall Food

In what year did Starbucks first sell the Pumpkin Spice Latte?

Starbucks launched the Pumpkin Spice Latte in autumn 2003, after developing it that January; it reached every US store the following year and became the chain's best-selling seasonal drink.

In which year did Starbucks add real pumpkin to the Pumpkin Spice Latte?

Starbucks reformulated the drink with real pumpkin purée in 2015, by which time it had sold more than 200 million Pumpkin Spice Lattes.

Which 1796 cookbook, the first written by an American, printed early pumpkin pie recipes?

Amelia Simmons' American Cookery, printed in Hartford in 1796, was the first cookbook by an American and included two 'pompkin' pudding recipes baked in a crust.

Libby's, the best-selling canned pumpkin brand, uses only which variety of squash?

Dickinson is a tan, oblong Cucurbita moschata that looks nothing like a Halloween pumpkin. Fresh pie bakers usually reach for small sugar pumpkins instead.

Roughly how much did the world's largest pumpkin pie, baked at Ohio's New Bremen Pumpkinfest in 2010, weigh?

The New Bremen pie of September 2010 weighed 3,699 pounds and measured 20 feet across, earning the Guinness record for the world's largest pumpkin pie.

Candy corn was invented in the 1880s by George Renninger, an employee of which confectioner?

Wunderle of Philadelphia first produced Renninger's candy corn in 1888; the Goelitz Confectionery Company, now Jelly Belly, took it up in 1898.

What was candy corn's original name?

Goelitz sold it as Chicken Feed, in boxes with a rooster logo, pitching the yellow, orange and white kernels to a largely rural, farming America.

The National Confectioners Association designated which date National Candy Corn Day?

October 30, the day before Halloween, is National Candy Corn Day; as of 2016 US makers were producing about 35 million pounds, nearly 9 billion kernels, each year.

Dan Walker, credited with creating the caramel apple in the 1950s, sold for which company?

Dan Walker, a Kraft Foods sales representative, devised the caramel apple in the 1950s as a use for leftover Halloween caramels, and the recipe went on Kraft caramel bags.

William W. Kolb invented the red candy apple in 1908 in his candy shop in which city?

Kolb, a Newark, New Jersey confectioner, dipped apples in red cinnamon candy he was testing for Christmas and put them in his shop window; they sold out at five cents each.

In Britain, toffee apples are eaten at Halloween and at which other autumn celebration?

Toffee apples are eaten on Bonfire Night, 5 November, as well as at Halloween; a hard toffee shell on a crisp apple suits cold outdoor bonfire gatherings.

Which ingredient gives the British sweet known as plot toffee its slightly bitter flavour?

Black treacle gives plot toffee its bitter edge; the sweet also goes by treacle toffee, Tom Trot and, in Scotland, claggum, and sells best in northern Britain.

Why does flooding cranberry beds with six to eight inches of water work as a 'wet harvest'?

Ripe cranberries hold four air pockets, so they float when the bed is flooded; a water reel loosens them and the floating fruit is corralled into a corner and pumped out.

Which state is by far the largest cranberry producer in the United States?

Wisconsin grows around 60% of the US cranberry crop, far ahead of any other state; the marshes around Warrens in central Wisconsin style themselves the Cranberry Capital.

Which grower-owned cooperative, founded in 1930, markets most of North America's cranberries?

Ocean Spray was formed in 1930 by three cranberry growers led by Marcus Urann, and the cooperative grew to handle around two-thirds of North America's cranberry crop.

Roughly what proportion of the cranberry crop is processed rather than sold fresh?

About 95% of the cranberry crop is processed into juice, sauce and sweetened dried cranberries; only around 5% is sold fresh, mostly in the weeks before Thanksgiving.

Which state's legislature designated pecan pie its official state pie in 2013?

Texas, whose state tree is the pecan, made pecan pie its official state pie in 2013; the makers of Karo corn syrup did more than anyone to popularise the dish in the early 20th century.

Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during which Chinese celebration?

Mooncakes are the signature food of the Mid-Autumn Festival, held on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month; traditional ones bear an imprint of characters for longevity or harmony.

In a traditional lotus-seed mooncake, what does the salted duck egg yolk at the centre symbolise?

The round salted duck egg yolk stands for the full moon of the festival night; premium lotus-seed mooncakes often hold two or even four yolks.

Legend says mooncakes hid messages that helped rebels overthrow which Mongol-led dynasty?

Legend has Zhu Yuanzhang's rebels hiding the message 'kill the rulers on the fifteenth of the eighth month' in mooncakes to topple the Mongol Yuan dynasty; his Ming dynasty followed in 1368.

Which Canadian province produces about 72% of the world's maple syrup?

Quebec's producers hold a strategic reserve of syrup, and there is a black-market trade in the province's product.

Which state has long been the largest maple syrup producer in the United States?

Vermont leads US production by a wide margin, setting a record of about 2.5 million gallons in 2022; its 2001 state quarter shows sap buckets on maple trees.

Roughly how many volumes of maple sap must be boiled down to make one volume of syrup?

It takes roughly 20 to 50 volumes of sap, about 40 on average, to make one volume of syrup; sap runs only when days thaw and nights freeze, so the season is short.

A 1925 Connecticut newspaper described members of which organisation eating 'Some-mores'?

A 1925 Connecticut newspaper described Girl Scouts toasting 'Some-mores'; the recipe was printed in 1927 in the handbook Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.

Which country holds its Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October?

Canada has marked Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October since a 1957 proclamation, some six weeks before the American holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.

Which vegetable was traditionally carved into Halloween lanterns in Ireland and Scotland before pumpkins?

Turnips (and swedes) were hollowed out and carved into lanterns in Ireland and Scotland; the pumpkin, softer and far larger, took over quickly once the custom reached America.

In Ireland, small items such as a ring were traditionally hidden in which Halloween fruit bread?

Barmbrack, the Irish Halloween fruit bread, hid a ring for whoever would marry next, along with items such as a pea or a coin; rings were also baked into colcannon.

Sharing medieval 'soul cakes' at Allhallowtide is a suggested origin of which Halloween practice?

Souling, in which children and the poor went door to door for small spiced soul cakes in return for prayers for the dead, is a suggested ancestor of trick-or-treating.

In Portugal, roasted chestnuts are traditionally eaten on which saint's day in November?

St Martin's Day, 11 November, is Portugal's magusto, when families roast chestnuts over bonfires and drink new wine or jeropiga.

Within about 40 years, chestnut blight had killed roughly how many American chestnuts?

Chestnut blight, first noticed in New York in 1904, killed an estimated 4 billion American chestnuts within about 40 years, wiping out a dominant hardwood of the eastern forests.

Unlike the sweet chestnuts you roast, the 'conkers' of the horse chestnut tree are what?

Horse chestnut seeds are mildly poisonous, containing the saponin aescin; the tree belongs to the genus Aesculus and is not a true chestnut at all.

The very first Oktoberfest, held in 1810, was staged to celebrate what?

Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese, and the meadow the party was held on was named Theresienwiese in her honour. Most of the modern festival actually falls in September.

Only beer brewed within the city limits of which city may be sold at Oktoberfest?

Only beer from Munich's six big breweries, brewed inside the city limits to the Reinheitsgebot, may be served; Munich's mayor opens the festival by tapping the first keg with 'O'zapft is!'.

Which orange autumn fruit is astringent until fully ripe and sold in Hachiya and Fuyu varieties?

The persimmon's astringency comes from the soluble tannin shibuol, which fades as the fruit ripens; Hachiya must soften fully, while Fuyu can be eaten crisp; Japan dries them into hoshigaki.

Who grew the first pumpkin to top 2,000 pounds, a 2,009 lb giant in 2012?

Ron Wallace of Rhode Island broke the 2,000-pound barrier in 2012 with a 2,009 lb pumpkin, sixteen years after the first 1,000-pounder was grown in 1996.

Record-breaking giant pumpkins such as Dill's Atlantic Giant belong to which squash species?

Giant pumpkins are Cucurbita maxima, a different species from jack-o'-lantern and pie pumpkins; Nova Scotia grower Howard Dill selected the Atlantic Giant strain and held world records in 1980 and 1981.

The Honeycrisp apple, a star of the fall orchard, was developed at which university?

The University of Minnesota bred Honeycrisp and released it in 1991; its explosive bite comes from unusually large cells that rupture rather than cleave, and it became Minnesota's state fruit in 2006.

Songpyeon, the rice cakes made for Chuseok, are steamed over a layer of what?

The needles keep the cakes from sticking and scent them with pine; the fillings are typically sesame, chestnut or sweet red bean.

Songpyeon rice cakes are traditionally shaped like what?

Korean tradition holds that a half-moon can only grow fuller, while a moon already at its fullest can only wane, so the half-moon shape stands for prosperity to come.

The sweet potato, whether in a Thanksgiving casserole or a Southern pie, belongs to which plant family?

Sweet potatoes belong to the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae; they are only distantly related to the potato, a nightshade, and their twining vines and trumpet flowers show the kinship.

In North America, orange sweet potatoes are often sold under which unrelated tuber's name?

The naming habit is traced to enslaved Africans, who saw a resemblance to the yams of home. Botanical yams belong to the genus Dioscorea.

In the United States, what is the main thing that distinguishes fresh apple cider from apple juice?

American fresh cider is unfiltered, cloudy pressed juice, while apple juice is filtered and usually pasteurised; outside North America 'cider' means the alcoholic drink Americans call hard cider.

Apple cider is the official state beverage of which US state?

New Hampshire made apple cider its official state beverage in 2010; cider is a Halloween, Thanksgiving and New Year fixture, often mulled with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

Cider doughnuts, sold warm at cider mills every fall, are an autumn harvest tradition of which US region?

Cider doughnuts are a Northeast tradition, sold warm at orchards and cider mills from Maine to upstate New York; a Buffalo newspaper mentioned them at Halloween parties as early as 1901.

Pan de muerto, the sweet bread for Dia de Muertos, is decorated on top with dough shaped like what?

The dough strips on top represent bones, set in a circle for the cycle of life; the knob in the centre is a skull or teardrop, and the loaf is flavoured with orange flower water or anise.

Grenadine syrup originally consisted of the thickened, sweetened juice of which autumn fruit?

Grenadine takes its name from grenade, French for pomegranate, whose thickened juice it originally was; in Greek myth eating pomegranate seeds bound Persephone to the underworld for part of each year.

Brussels sprouts are said to taste sweetest after which weather event?

A frost sweetens Brussels sprouts, because cold prompts the plant to convert starch into sugars; the buds spiral up a stalk that can reach four feet, and their bitterness comes from the glucosinolates sinigrin and progoitrin.

Brussels sprouts are a cultivar of the very same species, Brassica oleracea, as which other vegetable?

Kale, like broccoli, cabbage, collard greens and kohlrabi, is a cultivar of Brassica oleracea; sprouts were grown near Brussels possibly as early as the 13th century.

The earliest known English apple pie recipe (c. 1381) called for apples, spices, figs, raisins and which fruit?

The recipe of about 1381 called for apples, spices, figs, raisins and pears, coloured with saffron and baked in a pastry 'coffin'; colonial America had only crabapples until European trees bore fruit.

H. B. Reese created his peanut butter cups after working as a shipping foreman for which chocolate maker?

Reese worked on Milton Hershey's dairy farm and as a shipping foreman at Hershey before launching his cups in 1928; Hershey bought the Reese company in 1963.

The English word 'turkey' originally referred to which African bird traders brought via Turkey?

The guineafowl, imported into Europe through Ottoman Turkey, was the original 'turkey-cock'; when the similar American bird arrived in the 16th century, the name transferred to it.

What is the fleshy growth on a turkey's forehead that lengthens and reddens in courtship?

The wattle hangs from the throat; the snood dangles over the beak. Both flush with blood when the tom is showing off.

During the autumn harvest festival of Sukkot, observant Jews eat their festive meals in what?

The sukkah is a temporary hut roofed with branches, recalling the shelters of the Exodus; Sukkot begins on 15 Tishrei and closes the agricultural year in the Land of Israel.

Butternut squash was bred in 1944 by Charles Leggett, a farmer in Stow, in which state?

He crossed a pumpkin with a gooseneck squash. Australians and New Zealanders call the result butternut pumpkin, and it keeps three to six months after harvest.

Which state grows about 41% of the entire US pumpkin crop?

Libby's plant in Morton, Illinois turns out roughly 85% of the country's processed pumpkin.

What is the botanical term for a berry with a hard rind, such as a pumpkin?

Cucumbers, melons and squash are pepos too. Pumpkin fragments found in Mexico date to between 7,000 and 5,500 BC.

Roasted, salted pumpkin seeds are sold under which Spanish-derived name?

Hulled green pepitas come from specific hull-less varieties; the seeds scooped out of a jack-o'-lantern still have their white shells on.

Dr Thomas Welch first made unfermented Concord grape juice in 1869 for use in what?

Thomas Welch, a Methodist dentist in Vineland, pasteurised Concord grape juice in 1869 as 'Dr. Welch's Unfermented Wine' so that teetotal congregations could take church communion without alcohol.

Apple butter, the slow-cooked autumn spread, has its medieval roots in the Rhineland and which other region?

Apple butter arose in the Middle Ages in Limburg, now split between Belgium and the Netherlands, and the Rhineland, where monasteries with large orchards boiled down surplus apples; it contains no dairy.

Acorn squash belongs to which species, the same one as zucchini and other summer squashes?

Acorn squash is Cucurbita pepo, the species that also includes zucchini, pattypan and jack-o'-lantern pumpkins; although cooked as a winter squash, it is botanically a summer-squash relative.