A Turkish friend of mine hand-carried a packet of jack-o-lantern
pumpkin seeds bought while in the US and planted them in one of his
fields last year. The first crop came up pretty normal as I recall,
though they were somewhat misshapen and huge. He collected the seeds
from the harvested pumpkins and planted them this spring. The attached
jpgs show some of the results. The single big one (the little glass
mug next to it holds 200 ml) looks like something from a horror show.
All of them resemble demons from Hell.
The squash most closely resembling an American pumpkin in Turkey is
called balkabağı (literally "honey squash")
https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_kaba%C4%9F%C4%B1. They're enormous.
Their very thick shell makes them quite difficult to carve (I tried it
for Halloween my second year in Turkey) and has a distinctly bluish
tinge.
--
Bob
St Francis would have done better to preach to the cats