Hey there! It’s fall, and you know what that means? It’s almost time for jack-o’-lanterns! Squeaks wants to carve a really big pumpkin this year, so we looked at some photos to see how big they can get. Wow, some pumpkins are huge! They’re much bigger than the ones we see at farmers’ markets.
Squeaks was curious about why pumpkins can grow so big. We’ve seen big apples and other large fruits, but nothing as big as these prize-winning pumpkins. The biggest pumpkin in the world was grown in 2021 and weighed about 1,226 kg, which is as much as a small car!
Pumpkins grow differently from other plants. All living things, including plants, are made of tiny parts called cells. Living things grow by making more cells. A small pumpkin has fewer cells than a large one. It’s like building with Lego blocks; a bigger building needs more blocks, and a bigger pumpkin has more cells.
Pumpkins also grow bigger because each cell gets larger. They spend more time growing both in number and size of cells than other plants, which is why they can become so big.
If you want to grow a huge pumpkin, there are some things you need to know. First, giant pumpkins take months to grow. They need a lot of water because the cells are mostly water. Some giant pumpkins need more than 600 liters of water every day, which is enough to fill two bathtubs!
Plants have special parts called xylem and phloem. Xylem carries water, and phloem carries sugar. The biggest pumpkins grow on plants with more xylem and phloem, allowing water and sugar to move quickly through the plant to help it grow big.
To grow a big pumpkin, start with a seed from a big pumpkin. Plant it in good soil and give it plenty of light. When pumpkins start to form, pick just one to grow and remove the others so it gets all the water and sugar. Also, give the pumpkin fertilizer with nutrients to help it grow healthy.
Growing a giant pumpkin is a lot of work, but the results are amazing! These pumpkins might not be very tasty, but they make great jack-o’-lanterns, even if they have a flat side from growing so fast and heavy.
Halloween is coming, and that means candy corn! But what is candy corn made of? It looks like little corn kernels, but it’s not actually corn. Candy corn is made from sugar and corn syrup, which comes from corn.
To make corn syrup, the hard outer layer of corn kernels is ground into a fine dust called cornstarch. When heated and mixed with chemicals, it turns into corn syrup, a sweet, sticky liquid full of sugar. Candy corn includes two types of sugar: sucrose (like table sugar) and glucose (from corn syrup).
Confectioners add gelatin to the sugar and corn syrup mixture. Gelatin helps liquids hold a solid but wiggly shape. It’s made from collagen, which comes from animal bones. Don’t worry, you’re not eating bones; it’s just a way to use as much of the animal as possible.
To create the classic yellow, orange, and white layers, food dyes are added. The mixture is poured into molds to cool and harden. To help the candies slide out easily, the molds are dusted with cornstarch.
Finally, confectioners add a shiny glaze called shellac, which comes from bugs. Lac bugs produce a waxy coating on trees, and humans use it to make things shiny, including candy corn!
Our friend Juniper the worm gave us some apples to make a yummy treat. We decided to make caramel apples! Caramel gets its brown color from a special chemical reaction called the Maillard reaction, which happens when you cook certain foods.
To make caramel, you need proteins and sugars, and the third ingredient is heat. Heat causes the proteins and sugars to react and turn brown, perfect for coating apples.
Here’s how to make caramel: In a saucepan, mix one cup of heavy cream, one cup of sugar, half a cup of corn syrup, and a quarter teaspoon of salt. Heat the mixture and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add butter and keep mixing. Once it starts to boil, stop stirring to prevent sugar crystals from forming.
When the mixture reaches about 248°F, add vanilla and let it cool. Dip apples into the caramel and set them on parchment paper to cool. Once the caramel is solid, your treats are ready to eat!
Cooking is like science; sometimes you have to experiment to learn. If your caramel doesn’t turn out right, observe what happened, figure out what went wrong, and try again. Enjoy your delicious caramel apples!
