Inside Report (1)

Great purple pumpkins!

Could purple and black have become Halloween colors? According to University of Illinois home horticulturalist Jim Schmidt, Halloween vegetable carving actually began with purple turnips and beets. As time went by, pumpkins were considerably more plentiful when fall rolled around and their orange color, along with black, soon took hold.

A bit of pumpkin trivia: Most pumpkins grown commercially for canning and other processed uses are more tan than orange.m