Pumpkins in Ontario: From Three Sisters to Jack-o’-Lanterns
Updated: Oct 5
There is a particular point every autumn when Ontario seems to change almost overnight.
Pumpkins appear at roadside stands. Cornstalks lean against porches. Favourite fall recipes come back out, farmers' markets change colour, and suddenly there seems to be a pumpkin everywhere you look.
Most of us don't think very much about how it got there.
We buy one. We cook it. We decorate with it. And eventually, many of us take a knife to it and discover whether our pumpkin-carving abilities are quite as impressive as we remember.
The Story of Pumpkins in Ontario
From Three Sisters to jack-o’-lanterns, the story of pumpkins in Ontario connects centuries of agriculture, tradition, folklore and creativity—and something we could probably all use a little more of: Reasons to gather around a table and make something together.
Before the Jack-o’-Lantern, There Were the Three Sisters
Long before pumpkins became decorations on Canadian doorsteps, squash was part of a much older agricultural story.
Across parts of North America, Indigenous peoples developed sophisticated agricultural practices suited to their lands, climates and communities. One of the best-known examples is the growing of corn, beans and squash together, a combination often called the Three Sisters.
The idea is remarkably practical.
Corn grows tall and can provide a natural structure for climbing beans. Beans, through their relationship with bacteria in the soil, can contribute nitrogen to the growing system. Squash spreads across the ground, where its broad leaves can shade the soil, conserve moisture and suppress some weeds.
Rather than three crops simply occupying the same garden, each brings something different to it.
It is important, however, not to describe the Three Sisters as one universal Indigenous gardening system. Indigenous agricultural knowledge is diverse, and Nations and communities developed practices appropriate to their own territories, foods and traditions.
Here in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence region, corn, beans and squash have long histories within Indigenous agriculture and foodways.
And although squash belongs to the same larger plant family as the pumpkins filling our farm stands today, we shouldn't imagine every historical Three Sisters garden filled with the large orange carving pumpkins we associate with Halloween.
The connection is broader—and much more interesting.
Today we talk about companion planting, conserving water, soil health and sustainable agriculture. Indigenous growers were observing relationships between plants, adapting their methods and passing agricultural knowledge through generations long before we developed our modern terminology for these ideas.
Sometimes innovation isn't about inventing something new. Sometimes it's about paying attention to knowledge that has been there all along.
So How Did the Pumpkin Become a Jack-o’-Lantern?
This is where our autumn story takes a rather strange turn.
Because the original jack-o'-lantern wasn't necessarily a pumpkin at all.
In Ireland and parts of Britain, people carved faces into root vegetables, particularly turnips. Folklore surrounding mysterious lights and the tale commonly known as Stingy Jack eventually became associated with the name jack-o'-lantern.
And if you've ever struggled to carve a particularly stubborn pumpkin, take a moment to appreciate the people who decided to hollow out a turnip.
When immigrants from Ireland and Britain brought their customs to North America, they encountered something much better suited to the job.
Pumpkins.
Pumpkins and other squashes are native to the Americas and had been cultivated here for thousands of years before European settlement. Compared with a small, dense turnip, a large hollow pumpkin offered a rather spectacular canvas.
Over time, traditions evolved.
The carved pumpkin became one of the most recognizable symbols of Halloween in Canada and the United States.
There is another distinction worth making here. Older Celtic traditions associated with Samhain long predate modern Wicca. Modern Pagan and Wiccan communities may celebrate or interpret Samhain today, but they are not interchangeable with the historical traditions from centuries ago.
History tends to be more interesting when we allow it to be complicated.
Somewhere Along the Way, Adults Stopped Making Things
Here's another interesting question...
When was the last time you made something simply because you wanted to?
Not dinner because everyone needed feeding.
Not something for work.
Not assembling a shelf because the box arrived with 37 pieces and an Allen key.
Something completely unnecessary.
Something creative.
Children are given permission to do this constantly. They paint, build, carve, glue, experiment and make spectacular messes without worrying too much about whether the finished product deserves to exist.
Adults tend to become much more cautious.
At some point we start saying things like:
"I'm not artistic."
"I've never done that before."
"I'd probably be terrible at it."
Which is unfortunate, because being terrible at something for an hour can actually be a lot of fun.
Girls’ Night Doesn't Always Need a Restaurant
There is absolutely nothing wrong with dinner and drinks.
But sometimes a night with friends becomes much more memorable when everybody has something to do.
Put a few people around a table with pumpkins, paint, clay, flowers, yarn, tools or ingredients and something changes.
Conversation happens naturally because nobody is under pressure to make conversation.
People compare what they're doing. Someone asks for help. Someone else discovers they're unexpectedly good at something. Someone inevitably makes a spectacular mistake that becomes the funniest part of the evening.
The activity gives people permission to relax.
The same thing can happen with families.
Family time doesn't always have to mean adults arranging an activity and then standing nearby supervising it.
Sometimes everybody can sit down and participate.
The eight-year-old can make something.
The teenager can make something.
Mom, Dad, Grandma, an aunt, a neighbour or a friend can make something too.
Nobody has to be the expert.
Perhaps We Need More Ordinary Reasons to Gather
That's ultimately what interests us about the pumpkin.
Yes, it's a crop.
It's food.
It's part of Indigenous agricultural history.
It became tangled up with migration, folklore and Halloween traditions.
And here in Ontario, its arrival at farm stands and markets is one of those familiar signs that another season has turned.
But a pumpkin can also become an excuse.
An excuse to visit a farm.
An excuse to cook something.
An excuse to learn where our food comes from.
An excuse to invite somebody over.
Or an excuse to sit beside someone you haven't met yet and discover that neither of you has the faintest idea how to carve the design you confidently chose twenty minutes earlier.
Those ordinary interactions matter.
They're part of why The Hands-On How-To Collective exists.
We believe communities become more interesting when people share what they know, remain curious about what they don't, and occasionally put down the screen long enough to make something with their own hands.
The Three Sisters offer a fitting place to begin.
Different plants bring different strengths to the garden.
People aren't terribly different.
Different strengths don't simply coexist. Sometimes they make one another stronger.
And that's an idea worth bringing back to the table.
And Now… We Carve 🎃
We're taking this autumn story off the screen and putting it into our hands.
Creative Pumpkin Carving Night
Thursday, October 22 | 6:00–8:00 PM
Something New • 416 Concession Street, Hamilton
Come with friends, bring the family, make it a date—or come ready to meet some new people.
Your pumpkin and supplies are included, and we'll finish the evening with our Creative Pumpkin Carving Contest, with three prizes up for grabs.
$30 per person • Limited to 20 participants
If you're looking for something new to see or do, visit us at the Events in Synergy: Pumpkin Patch and Peddlers Market on October 24, with two on-stage pumpkin-carving sessions at 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM.
No watching. Just doing.
The Hands-On How-To Collective
Where learning is living!
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