Pumpkin originated in South America and has been cultivated for 9000 years. Columbus brought it back to Europe and introduced it from Portugal to Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. Ming Dynasty began to enter China. Li Shizhen said in Compendium of Materia Medica: "Pumpkins were planted in Nanfan, transferred to Fujian and Zhejiang, and now there are pumpkins in Yanjing. Sowing in February is suitable for shawo land, and seedlings are born in April, resulting in many vines. One vine can extend more than ten feet ... Its son is like winter melon seeds, and the meat is thick and yellow, so he can't eat it raw, but it tastes like yam. It is best to cook with pork or stir-fry with honey. "
It is worth noting that in the Yuan Dynasty, Jia Ming also mentioned "pumpkin" in "Dietary Instructions". He said: "Pumpkin is sweet and warm. Eating too much will cause beriberi and jaundice. Eating the meat of the same sheep is irritating. Avoid eating with pork liver, red beans and buckwheat noodles. " But Columbus didn't arrive when he discovered America, and China didn't find any other wild pumpkins, so the "pumpkin" in the book is by no means what we call pumpkin today, but other melons. It's just that pumpkins are not suitable for eating with mutton now, so they are misinformed, and even lead to such erroneous statements as "Pumpkins have been introduced to China for a long time" and "Asia is also the origin of pumpkins".
The advantages of pumpkin are very obvious. It is also called "Migua" and "Migua" because of its large yield, easy survival and rich nutrition, which can replace grain in famine years. "The record of holding an urn in the northern book" said: "The older the pumpkin, the better. Huangzhou pork should be cooked with purple sand, with less water and slow fire. Steamed very ripe, sweet and greasy, very fragrant. " The so-called "Zizhan Huangzhou pork cooking method" is Su Dongpo's method of cooking Dongpo pork, which shows that people have regarded pumpkins as treasures.
According to ancient books, people eat not only fruits, but also leaves. For example, "it's wonderful to use leaves to remove tendons", and flowers can also be eaten. "Soak in boiling water and add salt instead of dried vegetables", but eating flowers requires removing the heart and beard, otherwise it will be too bitter, and pumpkin stems can be "woven into silk". In addition, pumpkin is also used to soak wine, which is considered to be beneficial to health care. "Seeking the Original Grass" contains: "It is better to steam and soak wine. Its vines are bitter and slightly cold. Calm the liver and stomach, pass the meridians, and replenish qi and blood. "
Interestingly, before Guangxu, there were few sayings about pumpkins, and most of them were called pumpkins, pumpkins, house melons and sleeping melons. On the one hand, it comes from overseas, on the other hand, it is huge. Because of its golden color, it has medicinal value and is also known as "golden melon". Pumpkin is often used as a drug to treat smoking addiction when opium is rampant.
Pumpkins were introduced into China in many ways, but Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang were the earliest. At first, China people mistakenly thought that pumpkins came from Japan, so they were called "Japanese melons", and because Japan is in the east of China, they were also called "East melons". In addition, there is a further misunderstanding that pumpkins come from the Korean peninsula and are called "Korean melons", while the Japanese think pumpkins come from China, so they are called "Tang Eggplant" (at that time, the Japanese called China products Tang objects).
In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, southern pumpkins moved northward along the Grand Canal, especially in Shandong, becoming an important pumpkin planting town in the north. People began to realize that this kind of pumpkin should come from the south, so the name "pumpkin" became popular.