Instead of pottage and puddings and custards and pies
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it was not for pumpkins we s hould be undone.

— Anonymous, circa 1630

When Europeans started settling in the New World in the 1600s, they discovered one of the continent’s oldest native crops — the pumpkin, a member of the squash family. As the poem above suggests, the fruit — high in fiber, vitamins and minerals — was valued in those days for its versatility.

Colonial women simmered pumpkin with butter, vinegar and spices, added it to stews and turned it into a hearty soup. Beer was made from fermented pumpkin, persimmons, hops and maple sugar.

Pumpkin’s top was cut off, the seeds scooped out and the cavity filled with cream, honey, eggs, sugar, nutmeg and ginger. The top was replaced, and the pumpkin was buried in hot ashes. Flesh blended with flavorings as it cooked, yielding a delicious treat.

As time passed, pumpkin’s importance as food decreased. In fact, it was relegated to being a minor crop until after World War II, when the end of sugar rationing established trick-or-treating as a Halloween tradition and the popularity of jack-o’-lanterns soared.

In the early 1970s, farmers realized they could make good money selling pumpkins for carving rather than cooking and started developing big, round hybrids with thick stems for that purpose.

Aloun Farms added the multipurpose pumpkin to its long list of crops in 2000. Today, two hundred acres are reserved to grow different varieties of it every fall, ranging from little decorative ones that are just a pound to giant pumpkins that weigh up to 80 pounds.

In 2003, Aloun began spotlighting pumpkin at a celebration that today draws 45,000 people over three weekends in October.

“Most people in Hawaii don’t have the opportunity to visit a working farm,” said Kae Sou, vice president of Aloun Farms. “Our Pumpkin Festival is a great way for families to experience that and spend a relaxing day in the country together.”

This year’s event will feature games, bounce houses, pony rides, kids’ carnival rides, tractor-pulled hayrides, an inflatable obstacle course, food booths and live entertainment. There will also be a petting zoo with goats, ducks, chickens, rabbits, a turkey, a goose and a miniature horse.

Attendees always look forward to heading into the fields to pick their own pumpkins, corn, sunflowers and string beans. Getting dirty is part of the fun.

“That’s the only time many people see how food is grown,” Sou said. “Some families make harvesting at our festival a game for their kids: Who can pick the most corn and string beans in the shortest time?”

Pumpkins will be priced by size, sunflowers will be sold individually and you can buy corn and string beans by the bucket.

In addition, the festival’s Ewa Sweet Farmers Market will be stocked with more than two dozen kinds of produce, most grown at Aloun Farms.

Think cantaloupe and cucumber, tomato and Thai basil, parsley and pomelo.

“It’s a good idea to bring a cart to carry your purchases,” Sou said. “Other than that, just come! The Pumpkin Festival is all about celebrating fresh, locally grown food and enjoying simple pleasures with loved ones.”

ABOUT ALOUN FARMS

Aloun Sou and his family immigrated to Hawaii from Laos in 1977 via a refugee camp on the Thailand-Laos border.

They settled in Waianae and began farming green onions, won bok, kai choy, choy sum, pak choy and other Asian vegetables on five acres of leased land.

Over the next several years, they added 13 acres and more crops, including a variety of herbs.

Since Sou and wife, Somphone, spoke limited English, they encouraged their four children to get an education and use it to improve the farm’s productivity and sales and marketing efforts.

Aloun Farms was incorporated by late 1995, and today it employs 180 people and grows some 45 crops — from limes to lettuce to lemongrass — on 3,000 acres in Ewa, Kunia, Waipio and Helemano.

Sixty-minute tours of the farm are available Tuesday through Friday in October at 8:30, 9, 9:30, 10, 10:30 and 11 a.m. for groups of at least 20 people.

Participants will learn about the farm’s history and diversified agriculture methods such as crop rotation and pest management, go on a hayride and pick a pumpkin to take home. Cost is $9 per person.

Aloun Farms also offers 90-minute nursery tours year-round on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Stops include a garden where experimental crops are grown. A minimum of 20 people is required, and the cost is $10 per person. Call 677-9516 to book or for more information about the tours.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.