As the myth goes, the origin of Halloween pumpkins traces back to an Irish folk story about “Stingy Jack.” Jack played a trick on the devil, who banned him from entering hell when he died. But God didn’t want him in heaven either, so Jack walked the earth in his afterlife. People lit candles in turnips to ward off his spirit, and then Irish immigrants in the U.S. switched to pumpkins. Thus, a seasonal industrial complex was born.
Although the practice came from another country, these days, your personal version of that tradition probably comes from a grocery store. Sure, many Bay Area residents day-trip to a local farm for their doorstep gourds, but many others are buying from Trader Joe’s , which, of all major grocery stores, is most likely to receive a fire inspector violation for the number of pumpkins per square foot. This raises the question: Does Trader Joe’s qualify as a pumpkin patch?
I asked a cashier about this on a recent visit to purchase a few essentials (shoutout to dark chocolate mint creams), and although they gave a little chuckle, the employee didn’t seem particularly interested in declaring their allegiance (and definitely wasn’t flirting with me )…