Is it a pumpkin?

 Wow.  Who knew?  Certainly not me.  I said I wouldn't talk about pumpkins again but I can't help it.  I learned so much from my Australia friends.  Mainly, you don't have canned pumpkin nor pumpkin pie. And what you call pumpkins, we call squash.

This is an image Maria sent yesterday.  These are not pumpkins they are squash.

To us, these are pumpkins.  

And these

And these minis you can hold in the palm of your hand or let your eight month old baby hold or wire onto a wreath or carve out a hole and put a candle in for table decor or whatever.

And this is a pie pumpkin.  You can tell because there is almost no ribbing and they are heavy. These you cook down, moosh down and season for pumpkin pie

These warty ones are the ones I think are fun, but they are pumpkins

There are even white pumpkins.  I was told today that they are very dense and you could successfully cook with them but it's more fun to decorate with them.

But THESE, to us, are squash.  

And these. There are many, many different kinds, shapes, sizes, densities and taste.  They are different animals altogether.  These are what you in Australia call pumpkins.  

All pumpkins are squash but not all squash are pumpkins.  A square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn't a square. COULD you cook with any pumpkin?  Yes, of course, but some are watery and not very fleshy. Those are the ones the kids carve for Halloween.  If you are going to cook with one you would choose a pie pumpkin.  But to us, a squash is not a pumpkin.

Totally confused?