The pumpkin is one of the world’s oldest cultivated plants, the origin of the common pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) has been scientifically dated from 10,700 to 9,200 B.C. The common pumpkin originated in the Southern areas of Mexico. The pumpkin came most likely to Europe first after the discovery of America.

An important point to remember is that these early pumpkin seeds had a thick shell, similarly to the pumpkins that are still planted today in many parts of the world including Canada where we have the Halloween pumpkin with the light colored, thick shelled seeds, that are hard to eat because of the shells.

The Pumpkin family has many members, including the variety Cucurbita pepo var. styriaca, which produces the so called Naked or shell-less Styrian pumpkin seed.

This variety of pumpkins with shell-less seeds arose about 150 years ago as a result of a natural mutation. The production of Styrian pumpkin seed oil was made considerably easier, since the seeds did not have to be laboriously hand shelled. In the mean time, the Styrian pumpkin seed has been specially bred, so that today we have the corpulent, dark green, shell-less pumpkin seeds that are perfect for use in the production of our award winning, one of a kind Styrian Gold Pumpkin Seed Oil P.G.I.

To learn more about the P.G.I. CLICK HERE