It's the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy, Charlie Brown!

I've recently become obsessed with pumpkin. Almost like Linus on Charlie Brown. I've always enjoyed pumpkin. Each Thanksgiving I look forward to pumpkin pie almost as much as turkey (that is another topic of conspiracy). Before Thailand, most of my pumpkin experiences were limited to this dessert. But then in Thailand, I discovered a great pumpkin dessert- boiled pumpkin in sweet coconut milk. But I'm not really a dessert sort of person, so this year I've enjoyed broadening my pumpkin options. Last week I had pumpkin cinnamon pancakes. Perhaps I had built up my expectations for the pancakes too much, because I was disappointed. They seemed to be more cinnamon than pumpkin. Two days later I tried pumpkin coffee. It was so good... My mom sent some of the coffee home with me, reminding me that she loves me a lot to share her pumpkin coffee with me. And yesterday at the Baked Potato Teachers' Lunch there was a pumpkin dessert (not pie) that I had to try.
My friends have noticed my pumpkin obsession. Last week I got an email from a friend telling me about Starbucks' new Pumpkin Latte. Another pumpkin enthusiast has told me this isn't very good. Someone else informed me that 7-eleven has a pumpkin coffee. I haven't yet tried it to see if it is good. On work email (a group of my friends who email all day while at work) we had a discussion about this very topic: pumpkin. All this pumpkin, made me wonder- why do we only have pumpkin from Halloween to Christmas? Is there a great pumpkin conspiracy?
So this morning, I began to research. It occured to me that perhaps there is a very logical reason to the limited pumpkin season. I'm not a farmer- farmercam, interesting idea- so I don't know much about growing things. I found out that pumpkins are grown on all the continents except Antarctica. Pumpkins originated in Central America. The early European settlers added pumpkin to their diet as a result of the influence of the Native Americans. This might also be the reason pumpkin is linked to Thanksgiving. The cycle of the pumpkin begins with the planting of the seed in April and the harvesting of the pumpkin in October. I guess there is no conspiracy after all. It is strictly how the pumpking grows.
Though I'm pretty sure I enjoyed that pumpkin dessert in Thailand year round. I think I'll continue to believe in the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy as I enjoy my pumpkin coffee this fall and my pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

update: When I asked a friend why she thought there isn't pumpkin year-round she said: "because it is weird. Quit trying to push your pumpkin agenda."