As the jeweled leaves sprinkle onto the grassy lawns everywhere, I am looking forward to an annual tradition that I’ve been participating in since before I can remember – heading out to a pumpkin patch to pick the perfect pumpkin! As kids, my sister and I noticed there were two distinct shapes of pumpkins – the ‘Bert’ and the ‘Ernie.’ You can tell we were fans of Sesame Street! The ‘Bert’ shape is tall and narrow, and the ‘Ernie’ shape is short and fat. ‘Berts’ are good for carving skulls and owls on branches, while the ‘Ernies’ are great for harvest moon scenes and really wide grins.
This is the perfect time of year to pick your pumpkins. Did you know the pumpkin is actually a very tender vegetable? The seedlings can be easily damaged by a frost, so don’t plant them until you’re sure they won’t freeze. Some actually make it to giant-size, lolling about in the green-stalked pumpkin patch. Have you seen them at a county fair this fall? The blue ribbon winner this year at the Cumberland County Fair, held just north of our location here in Portland, Maine, weighed over 1130 pounds and won $500! That’s some vegetable!
I could not pass up the chance to go see a beautiful field of yet-to-be-carved grinning orange beauties this year! Pumpkins come in all kinds of colorful varieties – have you seen the ghostly white ones? They would look great grouped next to the orange faces on All Hallow’s Eve. The Jack O’Lantern has an interesting history – the original carved vegetable was actually a turnip. Read about the story here.
Gourds, the jack o’ lantern’s distant relative, are part of the cucumber family! Not hard to see the resemblance with all those knobby bumps. Definitely the wackiest members of fall’s harvest, gourds have been hollowed out, dried, and used by Native Americans for centuries. They’re waterproof, which makes them great for storage containers. Take a peek at the local farmer’s market and see if you can find the Cannon Ball, Crown of Thorns, White Egg, Aladdin’s Turban, Striped Pear, and Orange Warted varieties.
Our large and small Ghost Gourds combine both the pumpkin and the gourd in funny spooky shapes. Laura Megroz chose a black background and a fuzzy wool-hooked design for the Pumpkin Pillow, a Sturbridge Yankee Workshop best-seller. Hang up our funny-faced ceramic Jack o’ Lanterns with matching flickering tealights. I love their kooky expressions! Check out our new reduced prices!
See you at the pumpkin patch!
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