Picking the Season's Pumpkins
One of our favorite fall activities here at my Bedford, New York farm is picking pumpkins.
Yesterday, I shared photos from our winter squash harvest. We picked so many beautiful fruits. We also picked lots of pumpkins and ornamental gourds. As you know, pumpkins are cucurbits, members of the Cucurbitaceae family, which also includes squash, gourds, cucumbers, watermelons, and cantaloupes. This year, despite the heavy rains and days of sweltering heat and humidity, which challenge all vine crops, we still came through with a good amount of pumpkins and gourds - in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Pumpkins grow on long vines, which means they take up a lot of space. I always plant my pumpkin patch in a roomy bed that can accommodate a large crop of big, colorful specimens. We have this large patch behind my main greenhouse and another down by the vegetable garden.
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- Here, it is easy to see that the foliage on the vines has begun to wither and turn brown – a sign the pumpkins are ready to harvest.
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- With most of the foliage gone, the pumpkins are quite visible, which makes the task a little easier. We also put down salt hay and weed cloth, which prevented a majority of weeds from growing.
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- Ryan carefully snips the pumpkins from the vines with pruning sheers. It’s important to leave a stem. Leaving at least a couple of inches of stem will increase its keeping time. Ryan is also using a pair of gloves from my Garden Collection on QVC. These gloves are handy for so many of our gardening chores. If you don’t yet have a pair, be sure to go to the QVC web site. goo.gl/Uf5VmV
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- He is also careful not to injure the rind as decay and fungi will attack through the wounds.
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- It appears a critter got a hold of this pumpkin – leaving just a mound of seeds.
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- The name pumpkin comes from the Greek word ‘pepon’ which means “large melon”.
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- I love these brightly colored yellow and white pumpkins. I am always trying to grow different and unusual specimens along with the more traditional varieties.
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- ‘Speckled Hound’ is an eye-catching, orange pumpkin with green splotches and thick, dense flesh. After displaying the pumpkins in the fall, it’s nice to scoop out the seeds – they’re delicious roasted.
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- Gourds, Cucurbita pepo, also come in a mix of shapes and are perfect for Halloween decorating.
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- Here are two gourds with long necks and lots of warts.
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- As we harvested the fruits, we placed them into the wheelbarrows and then transported them all to my carport – look how many we collected. Modern pumpkins grow commercially in the United States, China, Mexico, and India. Farmers in the United States grow more than a billion pounds annually, with Illinois growing the most.
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- In just a short amount of time, the Polaris ATV was filled with a variety of pumpkins and ornamental gourds. The green gourd on the left is a bottle or birdhouse gourd. The green one in the center is called ‘Speckled Swan’.
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- Here’s Phurba down in the other patch adjacent to the chicken yard and near the vegetable garden. This is just one of several more large wheelbarrows full of pumpkins.
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- This year, many of our seeds came from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Whenever I can, I also use seeds I’ve saved from interesting or tasty pumpkins I’ve enjoyed in past years. https://www.johnnyseeds.com
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- Here is a traditional orange pumpkin – great for Halloween carving.
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- Pumpkin seeds should be planted between the last week of May and the middle of June. They take between 90 and 120 days to grow.
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- Chhewang cut this ‘Triamble’ pumpkin from a vine growing along the fence. ‘Triamble’ is an interesting triangular, blue-skinned fruit, which can weigh up to 12-pounds when fully mature.
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- In this batch are many small to medium white pumpkins including ‘Casperita’, a mini, one-pound white pumpkin with a strong green handle.
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- This pumpkin is smooth with flat round ridges, dark green skin and bright orange flesh.
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- Pumpkins are a good source of nutrition. They are low in calories, fat and sodium and high in fiber. Plus, they are loaded with vitamins A and B and potassium.
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- Here come six of my seven geese eager to check out all the action in the pumpkin patch. I have five young Sebastopol geese and two Pomeranian geese who are always together – the other Pomeranian guard goose cannot be seen in this photo, but he was close by watching everyone’s moves.
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- Once in the carport, each pumpkin and gourd is wiped with a damp cloth to remove any of the dirt and debris left from the garden.
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- No ‘decorating’ is required. Just lining them up makes a wonderful display.
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- Look at all the different colors and shapes. Many are cultivated for their witch and goblin-like appearances, such as the two flanking this smooth pumpkin – the more warts the better.
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- Ryan carefully arranges all the fruits, and makes sure all are clean and intact.
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- I can’t wait to use these pumpkins and gourds all around the farm. You’ll love how they look! I will be sure to share more photos of them soon. What are your favorite pumpkins? Share your comments with me below.
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