White Pumpkins: What To Know Before Visiting Walnut Creek Patches

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Orange is the color that has been most closely associated with Halloween and the pumpkin patch season in Walnut Creek every fall. But pumpkin enthusiasts have noticed the increasing popularity of white pumpkins as they search local fields for the best of the crop — the perfect choice for a ghostly jack-o’-lantern.

White pumpkins were viewed more as an accident of genetics, or a rare novelty, until the early 21st century, according to a number of blog posts on the subject. Since around 2000, however, they’ve become a popular sales item as more and more white pumpkins are grown intentionally.

It’s quite possible more than a few of the albino pumpkins, often referred to as ghost pumpkins, will pop up at visits to pumpkin patches and fields this fall near Walnut Creek:

1. Livermore's Iconic Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch, G&M Farms, Announces 2021 Dates
2. Joan's Farm & Pumpkin Patch -Livermore
3. Smith Family Farms - Brentwood
4. Three Nunns Farm - Brentwood
5. Speer Family Farms - Alameda Point
6. ABC Farms Pumpkin Patches:

• Fremont: 4020 Fremont Hub (corner of Fremont Blvd at Mowry Ave.), 94538
• San Leandro: 15555 East 14th Street at the Bay Fair Center Mall (in front of Kohl's), 94578
• Richmond: 2200 Hilltop Mall Rd. (between Walmart and JCPenney), 94806
• Concord: WE'VE MOVED to 1765 Galindo Street, 94520
• Antioch: 4650 Delta Fair Blvd. @ Century Blvd., 94509

While the differences between white pumpkins and the traditional orange ones may seem striking at first, there are fewer than many may think.

Both white and orange pumpkins grow on long trailing vines as members of the Cucurbitaceae family, the farmers market app Specialty Produce states.

The lifestyle blog “New Life on a Homestead” points out that not only are white pumpkins as edible as orange pumpkins, white pumpkin can substitute orange pumpkin in nearly all recipes.

The biggest difference, the blog noted, is that some studies have suggested due to their pale coloration, white pumpkins have fewer vitamins than their orange counterparts. There’s not enough research to solidly back up that claim, however, according to the blog.

It’s possible that some albino pumpkins have the same amount of vitamin A and other carotenoids, “but it’s likely they have less,” SuperFoodly.com, an Amazon service, noted.