Pumpkin mystery solved: County-level map shows where pumpkins are produced

Fall means pumpkins are beginning to pop up at grocery stores, farmer's markets, pumpkin patches and the front porches of houses. Pumpkins are a fairly common sight in fall, especially when Halloween rolls around. But where do pumpkins come from? They don't come from the South and some portions of the Southwest and Midwest, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Census, Christopher Ingraham reports for The Washington Post.

"Pumpkins are grown commercially in just about every county in the Northeastern states," Ingraham writes. "There are plenty of pumpkins grown along the west coast and throughout the mountain west as well. But interestingly, there's an arc of relatively pumpkin-free counties running from eastern Montana all the way down through the middle of the country and across to Florida."

Five of the top six pumpkin-producing counties are in Illinois, led by Tazewell County, which has 4,669 acres of pumpkins, Ingraham writes. Next is San Joaquin County, California, 3,441 acres; Mason County, Illinois, 2,627 acres; Wayne County, Illinois, 1,547 acres; Peoria County, Illinois, 1,323 acres; Stark County, Illinois, 1,068 acres; Yoakum County, Texas, 1,014 acres; Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1,004 acres; Carroll County, Virginia, 703 acres; and Suffolk County, New York, 641 acres. (Post map)