October '25

They contain copious amounts of potassium and vitamin A, as well as the necessary nutrients, all while retaining reasonable energy content, meaning that overzealous consumption will not lead to a failure to fit in your favourite socks.

The Chinese have gained some hard-earned experience as the greatest pumpkin consumers in the world. When comrade Mao decided that China must take the Great Leap Forward, he ordered his underlings to significantly increase agricultural yield.

Unfortunately, the expectations were so high they did not intersect with reality. As it happens when statistics become the goal rather than the metric, some statistics underwent plastic surgery. Within several years, yield statistics would often more than double the actual harvest.

This turned out to be an obstacle to commencing Phase II of the leap. The Great Helmsman, as Mao liked to be called, ordered the confiscation of half of the entire harvest in order to feed the hungry, growing industrial cities. Unfortunately, a confused captain does not like to change course, which resulted in the worst famine in the history of humanity.

The famine would have been even worse had it not been for pumpkins. The farmers had to extract as much nutrition from their hidden fields with minimum suspicion. The choice of crops was clear, and so millions of people survived the red craze thanks to the orange pumpkin.