Variety, it is said, is the spice of life. Being able to try or choose new things and having the opportunity to make a choice among many similar things are freedoms that we take for granted. We can take this freedom to choose for granted because, In their efforts to generate profits, businesses continually strive to increase our choices and find new things for us to purchase.

On our family trip to the Apple Annie's pumpkin patch this year, I noticed large numbers of pure white pumpkins growing among the traditional orange pumpkins. I think I have seen a white pumpkin or two in the past but dismissed it as an oddity. I initially dismissed the first white pumpkins I encountered this year as oddities as well, but there turned out to be so many in the field that I concluded that, rather than being the occasional genetic freak or accident, these white pumpkins had to have been planted deliberately. But the traditionalist in me kept my focus on the standard orange pumpkins and that is what we ended up purchasing for Halloween this year.

However, while out shopping this past weekend I noticed more white pumpkins and not only real ones but artificial, plastic ones as well. Now farmers growing a few white pumpkins for variety is one thing but when they start manufacturing plastic white pumpkins along with plastic orange pumpkins in China and shipping boatloads of them to the U.S. one has to assume that this is a trend.

Sure enough, a Google search for white pumpkins yielded a number of sites for garden shops, pumpkin growing and agricultural sites all containing everything one would want to know about white pumpkins. The search also yielded some news sites and an Associated Press article that appeared on both the MSNBC site and the CBS site complete with the same picture. White pumpkins are definitely a trend which is growing. The growth is due in part to their newness and novelty but also to the fact that white is becoming a decorating trend and these white pumpkins fit right in with this.

White pumpkins, the real ones not the plastic ones, it turns out are one of many varieties of pumpkins. While most varieties are orange, I learned that, in addition to white, there are also varieties of pumpkins that are blue (often referred to as Australian Blue Pumpkins), red (two of the better known varieties of red go by the names of Rouge D'Etant and Cinderella) and tan. While becoming more common the blue and red varieties are still quite rare in commercial pumpkin patches and gardens although a number of the seed companies advertised seeds for these varieties for those interested in growing their own. The tan are produced in large quantities commercially but rarely show up in retail outlets for Halloween as their main use is in canned pumpkin puree for cooking. However, I am sure that if consumers show an interest in them for Jack O' Lanterns that retailers will soon begin stocking them as well.

Back to the white pumpkins. Like their orange cousins they too come in a number of varieties among which are varying sizes ranging from miniature to giant. While the outside of the white pumpkins tend to be pure white, it is only the outside rind that is white while the flesh beneath the rind is orange which tends to give the pumpkin a unique look when carved.

So, if you encounter a ghostly looking Jack O' Lantern on someone's porch while making your rounds this Halloween don't turn and run fearing that you have encountered a ghost of Halloween past - it is just the latest trend on pumpkin fashion.