When Did We Become Overly Obsessed with Pumpkin?

I was at Stop & Shop doing my weekly food shopping and it felt like the entire store was a pumpkin.

Don't get me wrong, I like a pumpkin spiced latte and an occasional slice of pumpkin bread during the fall months. But seriously, when did we become a pumpkin everything society? I don't remember it being like this even 10 years ago, never mind back in the 80s and 90s when I was a kid.

Somewhere and somehow there was a pumpkin epiphany and every year since, a brand new pumpkin something makes its debut. Take this store shelf, for example; and this is just a quarter of what I saw that involved pumpkin the other day:

I mean, seriously, there are thousands of websites and Facebook groups and pages dedicated to food and beverages with pumpkin in it.

For example, PumpkinandSpice.com has hundreds of recipes for all things pumpkin, from pumpkin delicious chocolate chip cookies (yum) to pumpkin, egg and cheese quesadillas (gross) for breakfast. Then there's PumpkinPatchesandMore.org which also showcases tons of recipes involving pumpkins but also the "how-to" when it comes to carving, decorating and displaying your pumpkins this fall season.

The biggest wow for me so far this season when it comes to food with pumpkin in it? Definitely the pumpkin pasta sauce. Gross. Come on, who would ever use pumpkin pasta sauce over traditional marinara or alfredo sauce on their spaghetti? Call me crazy but I think that is a huge stretch.