A Pumpkin’s Story

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

pumpkin

If you’ve read this blog for long you know of my love – nay – lust for fall. The weather, the colors, the food; smoke curling up from chimneys; apples begging to be picked and made into cider or pies or cakes. And, my appreciation for the old fashioned fall holidays – Halloween and Thanksgiving. I love it all.

But one thing you may not know is my (I’m almost embarrassed to say) dismal success at growing pumpkins. Maybe I should say lack of growing pumpkins. Oh, it’s not for lack of trying though. Each spring I carefully plant my seeds in peat pots. Baby Boo, Field, Sugar, Big Max, you name it and we have planted it. I water them faithfully and within a few weeks to a month I gingerly plant them out in the garden where everything seems to, invariably, go wrong.

Last year, sadly enough, the two pumpkins we did harvest were not even planted by us. Birds had dropped seeds near the sheep pen. When they began to grow Brianne would dump water on them while cleaning out water buckets and troughs…not the tips that I read about on the internet or got from growers. When we realized the vines were pumpkins we guarded them as steadfastly as the Secret Service guards the President. As those long sought for orbs grew, we protected them with cages made of chicken wire and wood. Nothing was going to prevent us from picking those two of our favorite crops. But, even with the surprise of volunteer pumpkins, my shame still remains, folks. I love pumpkins, but I can’t grow them.

Until Now!!!

We planted three hills of Cinderella pumpkins in May. And I’m proud to report that ALL three survived and have produced little green globes that will be screaming fall in another month as they turn to a luscious burnt orange color. None of them are overly huge. And, they aren’t really the kind for making into jack-o-lanterns or pies, but they are of respectable size for tabletop decorations or front door displays. When the season is over, we will gut our beloved pumpkins and save the seeds for in hopes of having even more next year.

It’s not the truck load I had envisioned, but it’s something. Our first real homegrown pumpkin. It’s a start, right?

Creative Commons License photo credit: beautifulcataya



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