Sign of the season. Nothing says Fall like pumpkins, but why? It’s a cross between the orange color, the forest of thick green leaves and vines that slowly turns brown as the nights get cooler.
Leaves are changing color, too, and there is a rhythm of life in all of us that responds to the seasonal change. We feel the changing season. We start to prepare our houses for winter. We snuggle up together when, just a few weeks ago, we were pushing each other away in the heat.
Think about it. The first pumpkins you saw on someone’s porch gave you an internal reaction to “nest”; to prepare; to gather your family in preparation for winter.
Signal of plenty. Pumpkins are all sizes, but nothing says “successful growing season” like a BIG one. It never ceases to amaze me how BIG pumpkins get, with more than one on a vine. Each vine came from just one seed, but oh how they produce!
Our patch is literally bursting with pumpkins. They are in the driveways, busting out from the edges, and entangled in the corn stalk border we planted. I had two boys walking in front of the mower saving pumpkins before I could get the tractor through to mow the grass to make way for the pumpkin express.
If you want to see the harvest of plenty, get to the patch this weekend. We have 40lb+ WHITE pumpkins growing in the field. We have 10 ACRES (think about the lot on which your house is built, then multiply) of LIVING, GROWING pumpkins ON THE VINE. We didn’t bring these in, they grew in the field.
You are part of this harvest of plenty, and quite frankly we need your help. There is NO WAY we could pick all these pumpkins ourselves. We need you.
Check around. Most places are $.49-$.59 PER POUND, no limit on price. That 40lb whomper of a pumpkin for decoration will run you $19-$24.
Fruit with personality. The most wondrous thing about pumpkins is that, somehow, they have personality. I have seen tens of thousands of people choose, select, pick out, decide upon their pumpkins and quite honestly, it’s more like an adoption process.
“Which one do you want to take home, honey?”
“No that one’s not the one, mom. I’m still looking.”
“Yes, dear, that’s a porch pumpkin, but we need a warty one for the dining room table display.”
“Oh, sweety, won’t these 5 look nice together?”
“Yes, but we just need to get one of those flat one’s. I just love those.”
“Jimmy always has to get the biggest one out here doesn’t he?”
“No kids, you get your own pumpkins, Daddy is looking for the TallMan pumpkin like last year.”
Pumpkins are so unique, we connect with them.
“What kind of pumpkin are you looking for?”
“I’ll know it when I see it.”
Isn’t that always the case? We know it when we see it. What’s that mean? That means that when we see the right pumpkin, something inside of us will react emotionally to the pumpkin; something will “click”.
I’ve seen it a zillion times and it’s why we go to all the trouble to grow 10 acres (which is an insane amount, probably over 100,000 pumpkins) for you.
Why? Because when it “clicks” for you; when you find your perfect pumpkin, it “clicks” for us, too.
Harvest season is here and the patch opens this weekend. Sure you have a few weeks, but everyone goes for the big ones first, so get here if you can!
See you soon on the farm,
Farmer Hugh
PS Neighbors & farm buddies Harry, Heather & Dawson from DeHoff Farms have sent over some of their prize winning pumpkins for a limited-time display in our NEW Pumpkin Corral. You can guess the weight of a pumpkin so big, we had to use the forklift to put it in place. Get some pictures with it, too!