The Great Pumpkin Harvest of 2019!
I know…it is totally unrelated to quilting, but I had to talk about it.
We went out and picked our last of the “big harvest”. Another 34 pumpkins to add to the total harvested!
That makes 79 pumpkins from my very modest pumpkin patch!
Well, maybe not so modest, but it’s certainly not a farm either!
There are 40 pumpkins here - many of them small and cute!
There are two rather large ‘squatty ones” - the big green one on the right and then to the left and back of it - one is turning orangish - also very squatty and big. There is a nice variation of sizes and shapes.
We picked them even though they aren’t completely orange yet. The ones I harvested a week ago are ripening nicely, so I thought we should just ahead and harvest them all so that we don’t have to think about it anymore. Then I can watch them daily as they gradually turn orange. Plus, the vines were dying - and it is on the other side of the road from where our home is, so I don’t actually get to “see” them unless I go over and look.
I am happy! I actually don’t have big plans for them! I probably will end up giving most of them away - maybe keep one or two.
I had a bumper crop last year.
I decided to put some along the entrance way to help with the decorating. I gave away one of the completely orange ones yesterday and put a more green on its place.
It appears that we have at least two varieties, if not three, of pumpkin vines. I didn’t actually plant any seeds - my friend, Ewa, did. She gave me plants when I got back from the states in early June - and I just put them in the ground. She had told me she planted seeds from the pumpkins I gave her last year. I had assumed they were from all one kind.
However, it does appear like at least the small ones are a completely different kind than the “big Halloween, typical pumpkin shape” that I thought she gave me.
Then there are the flat kind - squatty - not tall and typical and not real small either. So to me, it does appear as if we had at least three kinds!
They are rather strangely colored - but will all even out in color as they ripen. As long as it is getting in the upper 60s (F of course!) during the day, we are leaving them outside where they can ripen nicely and turn completely orange.
Besides, it’s kind of a lot to bring in the house! I actually didn’t realize that pumpkins sometimes start out green and turn orange as they ripen til a few years ago as I had grown only orange pumpkins (from the beginning they were orange!). The first time I had green ones I thought they were going to just stay green on the outside - when they turned orange I was bummed!
It’s a smallish one - but turning orange!
We had to pick this one even though it was very young because it was growing outside the fence and the road workers came along and cut the vine off. They also did a good job on the rind of the pumpkin but it has healed over. I’m not sure that this one will ripen as it may have been too young. If that is the case, we will either just compost it or give it to people who have chickens if they will eat it.
Here you can see why i figured we might as well go ahead and harvest them. Many of the vines had pretty much died or looked quite sick.
We picked out first ones on August 30 and now these - so within a month we have picked them all. There are possibly 3 more that if the weather stays warm may actually turn into a usable pumpkin - but if not, they will be too immature for anything except a green decoration!
What have I been doing with them?
So far we’ve given them away to neighbors and various people who have had occasion to come to our house - and of course my friend, Ewa, who gave me the young seedlings got some of the first ones! I also have given several to a home for handicapped people as their cook knows how to make good pumpkin soup - we know some people who live there.
We’ll see about the rest.
This is great fun. Last year we added a lot of grass clippings to the garden - I mean a LOT - and this year it turned my dirt that was struggling into lush loam (though maybe it was actually more compost than soil!) - and these plants enjoyed it immensely.
We took the truck over to load the pumpkins in. It was too many to try to bring over in a wheelbarrow.
Now we have found a source for local horse manure, so this winter we want to add that to our sandy soil - so even though we didn’t have more grass clippings to add this year, we hope to have another great year in the garden anyway!
And now you know!
Now back to quilting! Got some blues to finish up because I want to work on some fall quilts while it is still fall!
Have a great day wherever you are reading!
Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!