The chill of Hallowe'en :) is in the air........

are you ready for it???????


The warty one.....

Had one too many drinks......

Too many candies maybe.......

Saw a scary sight.....

The colour of my face if'n anything happens to my pumpkins....

In case some are wondering none of the above have been painted (it's their unadulterated skins that they are in). I first thought the blood-shot one up above had crossed but I just saw it in Martha Stewart's magazine so I knew it had to have a name (and 'One Too Many' is it).

This message was edited Oct 1, 2006 12:19 PM

First question. Did you grow all these? Assuming yes.

Second question. Did they all/some come from the seeds you saved from the white pumpkin last year or did you buy special seeds?

Yes to all ...... some I saved from last year didn't make it (ie the few seeds I'd saved from last year's Lumina didn't since most weren't mature enough and the two that did germinate DH was so curious about them he touched them and they broke :( ) but I had a couple of hills that had a mix of seeds thrown in & they came though with some wonderful surprises for me (beside saving last years seeds I had also purchased a mixed variety pumpkin seed pack). I had one very LARGE unusual smooth skinned yellow/orange one that was still growing into a monster but we ran out of time for it to mature (it was taken by someone in the end but they prolly thought they were saving it from frost....it'll rot before the 30th tho) . We also grew Baby Boo and some tiny orange ones that look like miniature 'Rouge Vif d'Etampes'. 'Rouge Vif d'Etampes' I was most pleased with because I knew it came from my saved seeds (and came through true to type). My plot was sooooooo loaded with vines we were pulling little pumpkins out of the tomato plants (advantage to growing pumpkins by 80+ day tomatoes.....we didn't have to worry about fighting the vines to pick the maters and they provided wonderful weed/deer/wildlife control).

BTW there are 8 large tables covered with maters in the basement (my house has a permanent scent of garden grown onions, tomatoes, basil, garlic and oregano cooking now), 1/2 of 90 hills worth of taters boxed up under the tables (just finished delivering the other 1/2 to parents), 40 pepper plants worth of peppers, and I'd show you all the pumpkins/squash in my porch but it's gunna take me forever to tidy up out there.;S

The fruits of your labour; well done Pam! Love those pumpkins!
Now could you please dmail me the scent in your house,lol. Must smell heavenly....

Great pumpkins. How large is your garden? And did you start them early or out in the field?

Ann

Thanks Erynne and Ann. :) re sharing I'd love to Erynne.....wouldn't be wonderful to have a scratch and sniff option here (esp in the recipe/canning forums. ;)

Erynne there is something so incredibly satisfying about starting a veggie from seed and at the end of the season filling the freezer/canning room with the fruits of your labour. Must admit I find it very fulfilling (and it brings back wonderful memories of helping/watching previous generations with the fall produce).

Ann the garden averaged around 75' by 35' (less at one end but more at the other). All the squash and melon seeds were directly planted (I didn't purchase any starts of the pumpkins). The pumpkin seeds germinated very quickly and started throwing male and female flowers very early.....unlike the Butternut Squash (and watermelon and muskmelon) whose flowers were male oriented for a much longer period.

We also had the advantage of training a number of vines out onto the grass along the longest side of our patch so that gave us a lot more growing space. The owner of the land would shake his head in amazement over how much we stuffed in there (he also noted that by August the weeds were having a tough time of it in our patch ;).

The greatest advantage of growing there was that the water (taken from the river) was included in our rental price so we would turn three taps on and flood our lot every 2nd or 3rd day (the neighbour on our north side didn't mind if we borrowed his hose as well). It really made this the best veggie garden we've ever grown (esp since the temperatures were so high this summer).

Pam (whose gotta get some dishes washed) :s

Oh the Green Acorn and the Acorn types (ie. 'Cream of the Crop' and 'Carnival') were also fast to throw female flowers. It will be interesting to see what will grow well here next summer (all of them I hope ;).

Ann (Annabelle)/Lynn (jagonjune) the final pickings of the cherry mater 'Sun Gold' were made into a *wonderful* tomato paste. Ü

What a wonderful bounty Pam! You obviously have great skill with those veggie plants. --Ginny

Must have been your warm sunny summer and the water. We had lots of natural water, but I think the problem with my back yard garden is increasing shade and it's often dicy getting pumplins and squash to mature even though I'm in a warmer zone.

Ann

Pam, congratulations on your beautiful pumpkins & the rest of your garden bounty. I just love that bright orange pumpkin in the last photo. I bet your home smells heavenly & just think in the middle of winter when you can pull out a jar of tomatoes or paste. I did roasted tomatoes this weekend(not home-grown) & the house smelled great for 2 days. Nothing beats the great smell of tomatoes cooking.

Thanks Ginny.........I also gotta credit the huge manure pile that the land owner provided (and slow release fertilizer) too.

Ann I'm sure you are right.........the plots that had trees nearby had much poorer growth. Ours was in full sun from sun up to sun down (I would've given anything to have gotten more rain, ;)

Thanks Linda he's my fav too (I should take another pic now that some are turning red). re "I did roasted tomatoes this weekend (not home-grown) & the house smelled great for 2 days. Nothing beats the great smell of tomatoes cooking" great minds (or possibly recipe forum followers ;) think alike!

This message was edited Oct 2, 2006 11:21 AM