60 Fun Facts About Fall Food

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

The drink was developed in January 2003 and reached every US Starbucks the following year; the PSL abbreviation was trademarked in 2015.

The Pumpkin Spice Latte had no pumpkin for its first twelve years. In which year was real pumpkin added?

By then Starbucks had already sold more than 200 million of them, and Forbes put the drink's revenue at around $100 million that year.

A 1947 voluntary rationing campaign for which ingredient asked Americans to skip pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving?

The custard-style pie needs eggs, and the postwar campaign asked households to cut back on them. The modern recipe had appeared in the 1796 cookbook American Cookery.

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?

It measured 20 feet across. The competitive-eating record for pumpkin pie belongs to Molly Schuyler: 50 slices in 10 minutes.

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

Wunderle put it into production in 1888; the Goelitz Confectionery Company, now Jelly Belly, took it up a decade later and still makes it.

What was candy corn's original name?

The tricolour of yellow, orange and white was meant to evoke the fall harvest, and the name pitched it to a largely rural, farming America.

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

That is the day before Halloween. As of 2016 US makers were turning out about 35 million pounds, or almost 9 billion kernels, a year.

Hunter's Candy began selling the first caramel apples in 1936 in Moscow, a town in which US state?

Hard-shell candy apples were decades old by then; the soft caramel coating was Hunter's twist, and the apples were later shipped to soldiers overseas during World War II.

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

Kolb dipped apples in a red cinnamon candy he was experimenting with and put them in the window as a display; they sold out.

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

Toffee apples were being sold in London by the 1890s. In Australia the Granny Smith is considered the ideal apple for them.

Which ingredient gives Bonfire Night plot toffee its slightly bitter flavour?

It goes by treacle toffee, Tom Trot and, in Scotland, claggum. It stays most popular in northern Britain, where darker sweets sell best.

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

Once loosened, the floating fruit is corralled into a corner and pumped out. Most cranberries never reach shops fresh; about 95% are processed.

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

Wisconsin grows around 59% of the US crop, well ahead of Massachusetts, the state most people associate with the fruit.

The word 'cranberry' comes from a Low German term likening the plant's flower to the head of which bird?

The flower and stem were thought to resemble a crane's head and neck. The missionary John Eliot first used the English form in 1647.

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

The United States and its northern neighbour together grow about 99% of the world's cranberries, and the Ocean Spray cooperative controls roughly two-thirds of the North American industry.

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

The earliest known recipe is a pecan custard pie in Harper's Bazaar in 1886, and the makers of Karo corn syrup did more than anyone to popularise the dish.

Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during which Chinese celebration?

Traditional mooncakes carry an imprint of the characters for 'longevity' or 'harmony'; chilled snow-skin versions only appeared in the early 1980s.

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

Lotus seed paste is considered by some the original and most luxurious filling; the yolk is often doubled or quadrupled in premium cakes.

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

The message supposedly read: on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, kill the rulers. The Ming dynasty followed.

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?

It set a record of 2.5 million gallons in 2022, and its 2001 state quarter shows sap being collected.

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

The sap only runs when days are above freezing and nights below, which is why the season is so short.

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

By the end of the 1920s 'some more' had been contracted to 's'mores'. The treat's ancestor was the Marshmallow Marguerite, buttered marshmallow on a saltine.

The earliest known printed 'trick or treat', in 1917, appeared in a newspaper in which country?

It was The Sault Daily Star of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The practice did not become widespread in North America until the 1930s.

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

The pumpkin is both much softer and much larger, which is why the tradition changed so quickly in the New World.

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

Whoever found the ring was said to be next to marry. Items were also hidden in colcannon and cranachan.

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

Children and the poor went 'souling' door to door, receiving the small spiced cakes in exchange for prayers for the dead.

In Portugal it is traditional to eat roasted chestnuts on which saint's day, celebrated on 11 November?

China grows by far the most chestnuts in the world today, around 1.5 million tonnes a year.

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

The tree had been a dominant hardwood of the eastern forests; efforts to breed a blight-resistant hybrid continue.

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

Horse chestnuts belong to the genus Aesculus and are not true chestnuts at all; they were named for the passing resemblance of the nuts.

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?

It must also comply with the Reinheitsgebot. The mayor opens the festival by tapping the first keg and shouting "O'zapft is!"

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

The astringency comes from the soluble tannin shibuol. China grows about 80% of the world's crop, and Japan hand-dries them for weeks into hoshigaki.

Twins Ian and Stuart Paton grew the 2,819 lb world record pumpkin in 2025 in which country?

The 1,000 lb barrier fell in 1996 and the 2,000 lb barrier in 2012, when Ron Wallace grew a 2,009 lb specimen.

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

That makes them a different species from the jack-o'-lantern and pie pumpkins. Canadian grower Howard Dill selected the Atlantic Giant strain and set world records in 1980 and 1981.

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

Its bite comes from unusually large cells that rupture rather than cleave. It became Minnesota's official 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 ancestors reasoned that a full moon can only wane, while a half moon can only grow fuller, so the shape stands for prosperity to come.

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

It is only distantly related to the potato and not related at all to the true yam, despite what the supermarket label says.

In North America the orange sweet potato is often sold as which unrelated African tuber?

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?

Outside North America 'cider' means the alcoholic drink; Americans call that hard cider. Hot mulled cider is a cousin of wassail.

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

Cider is traditionally served on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve, often heated with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

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

A Buffalo newspaper mentioned them at Halloween parties as early as 1901; the Doughnut Corporation of America likely sold the first commercial version in 1951.

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

The domed loaf represents a grave, and a small teardrop of dough stands for the tears of the goddess Chimalma. It is often flavoured with orange flower water or anise.

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

The fruit is in season in the Northern Hemisphere from September to February. In Greek myth, eating its seeds bound Persephone to the underworld for part of each year.

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

They grow as buds spiralling up a stalk that can reach four feet, and their bitterness comes from two compounds, sinigrin and progoitrin.

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

Broccoli, cabbage, collard greens and kohlrabi are all the same species too. Sprouts take their name from cultivation near Brussels in the 13th century.

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

Colonial America had no apples but crabapples, so the 'all-American' pie had to wait for European trees to bear fruit. Serving it with cheddar dates to 17th-century England.

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

The two companies merged in 1963, and by 2012 Reese's was the best-selling candy brand in the United States, dominating Halloween sales.

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

The American bird was domesticated in pre-Columbian Mexico about 2,000 years ago, and wild turkeys can fly short distances of up to a quarter of a mile.

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 recalls the shelters of the Exodus. The festival begins on 15 Tishrei and marks the end of 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.

Botanically, a pumpkin is a type of berry with a hard rind. What is that fruit type called?

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.

The Concord grape was bred in 1849 by Ephraim Wales Bull in Concord, a town in which state?

He sifted through more than 22,000 seedlings of wild Vitis labrusca; Dr Thomas Welch made the first Concord grape juice in his house in 1869.

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

Monasteries with big orchards made it to preserve their harvest, and it stayed a favourite way of using apples in colonial America; it contains no dairy at all.

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

Despite being classed as a winter squash, it shares its species with summer varieties; Native Americans introduced it to early European settlers.