According to the Mishna on today’s daf if someone performs sheḥita (ritual slaughter) on an animal on Shabbat or on Yom Kippur, although the act of killing an animal on those days is forbidden and the person who performs sheḥita is liable to receive a death penalty, nevertheless the animal is kosher and can be eaten.
Rav Huna quotes Ḥiyya barRav in the name of Rav as teaching that the animal may be kosher, but it still cannot be eaten on that day. This was understood by the Sages as an indication that Rav understood the Mishna as following the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda.
Several suggestions are brought by the Gemara in an attempt to clarify which of Rabbi Yehuda’s teachings this followed. Rabbi Abba suggests that it is Rabbi Yehuda’s teaching about hakhana – preparation. For the Mishna in Massekhet Shabbat (156a) teaches that a person is allowed to cut up dilu’in so that his animals can eat them on Shabbat, similarly he can cut up neveila – non-kosher meat – for his dogs. Rabbi Yehuda argues that if these things were not prepared for this purpose when Shabbat began, they cannot be used for this purpose on Shabbat.
The dilu’im mentioned in the Mishna in Massekhet Shabbat do not appear to be the pumpkin that is popular today from the cucurbita family, rather it is the “bottle gourd” or Lagenaria vulgaris that was known by the Sages as kara. The kara, or “bottle gourd” is a summer vegetable of the gourd family. It usually grows on the ground, although sometimes it is hung to grow down from poles. It is a large vegetable (40-50 cm in length; 25-30 in width), which grows in the shape of a bottle or pitcher. If it is harvested young, it can be cooked and eaten. Its seeds are used as dessert nuts.
Gourds have a high nutritional value. As is clear from our Gemara, when raw, they served as food for animals.