Pumpkin Pie: A Thanksgiving Tradition 
We all know the story. In the 1600s, at the beginning of the American colonialism, our brave founding pilgrims, fleeing from the tyranny of the British Rule, set forth to found and develop a country founded on the principles of religious rights and freedom. However, as the founding fathers of the American colonies trudged courageously on into the New World, they were met with the cold fist of reality.
They were strangers in an unfamiliar land, ill-equipped, and malnourished. As time ticked on, one by one, they began to succumb to starvation, scurvy, and illness. But just when all hope seemed to be lost, the Native Americans came in, and saved the day. They offered their knowledge of the land, fishing strategies, and tips for successful crop harvests. After the pilgrims got the hang of it, they invited the Native Americans to share in the bounty that they had collected. And thus, the first Thanksgiving was born.
Following the first Thanksgiving, future settlers thanked the Native Americans with gifts of genocide, rape, pillage, unlawful ownership of their land, and blankets infected with small pox, which nearly annihilated the Native American population and culture. But that’s a story for another day…
As the story goes, Pilgrims began to use pumpkins as a source of sustenance, eating stews and soups mainly at first, but developed other recipes over time. It has been speculated that the first pumpkin pie did not arrive on scene until much later, around 1651. 
There are countless recipes and variations on pumpkin pie, but overall, the spices used in pumpkin pie recipes stays relatively the same: cinnamon, all-spice, nutmeg, and cloves. As you will note, there is no pumpkin in the pumpkin spice itself. It is the mere spice complement to the orange gourd. This delicate blend of ingredients has become the staple to all things PS in our current market.