Pumpkin or Apple?
The Ultimate Fall Flavor Face-Off BY JULIANNA STEEN
A hh!The leaves are crunchy, the house is decorated with turkeys, and I, for one, am very grateful for all the cozy, warm fall foods. But as the season goes on, I continue to come across the same old question: pumpkin or apple? Don’t ask your friends if you don’t want an all-out debate on your hands. I won’t try to convince you one is better than the other… but I will point out the benefits of both and suggest how you can incorporate both into your seasonal snacking (and adventuring) this autumn. The PumpkinTaste &Tradition Few foods have deeper “American roots” than pumpkins, which were one of the earliest foods settlers found and brought back to Europe from the New World. Whether you eat it or not, pumpkin pie is considered a pretty iconic staple of theThanksgiving meal— and it has been since the OG pilgrims. In fact, in her poem “FirstThanksgiving Day,” published in 1622, Margaret
was mentioned frequently in anti- slavery novels, poems, and more— a byproduct of many New Englander abolitionists. All this to say, don’t knock the orange-golden crusted pie until you’ve tried it.There’s a reason pumpkin-flavored foods are so popular. Origins of the Apple While apples weren’t present at the firstThanksgiving, they definitely have some patriotic ties. Apples were brought over by the colonists and were first used to create cider. (Think back to your childhood— Johnny Appleseed, anyone?!) By the mid-1700s, the average American was downing around 35 gallons of hard cider each year. Many people, from children to President John Adams, would even drink hard cider for breakfast! Apples have historically been associated with the fall harvest, since that’s when they’re picked. So it
Junkin Preston writes, “[S]ee, in our open clearings, how golden the melons lie; Enrich them with sweets and spices, and give us the pumpkin-pie!” Preston wasn’t alone in her pumpkin- pie obsession. In 1705, an entire town in Connecticut postponedThanksgiving for a week because of a molasses shortage that prevented them from baking pumpkin pies, according to History.com.Talk about dedication! Especially since before 1929, you had to strain your own pumpkin—there was no pumpkin puree out of the can! Fun fact: The first pumpkin pies didn’t have crusts. Sometimes, the English would even stuff a pumpkin with sliced apples and sweetened milk and roast it over a fire. What a pumpkin- apple collab! You might be surprised to discover that pumpkin pie was actually quite political. In the mid-19th century, pumpkin pie
16 NOVEMBER 2025 | CINCINNATIFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM
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