If the strange weather we’ve been having hasn’t been enough now we are hearing that the pumpkin crop in our area is ready to be sold now! Yep that’s right. Pumpkins are ready in August.
Not a problem having pumpkins early right? Well yes there is a problem when the local farmers inform us that they won’t have any left in October for Halloween.
I’m not a huge Halloween fan, the candy is too much for just about any child and the precautions you must take to ensure your children aren’t getting something tampered takes the fun out of the holiday.
But Pumpkins! I love the fall season when I can set out gourds, pumpkins and colored corn (known around here as Indian corn). I enjoy bringing indoors some of the fall leaves, acorns and pine cones. There is something special about decorating with the last of nature before winter sets in.
I rarely carved pumpkins with my children. They got out markers or finger paints to decorate their pumpkins, then before they spoiled we pulled out the seeds and cooked and froze the pumpkin for use in muffins and other treats throughout winter.
I’ve noticed a lot of the squashes and gourds are already out so now I’m wondering if any of these will be available this fall. Fall is my favorite time of year, I love the colors and textures I can bring into my home more than I enjoy a tree at Christmas time.
If this year isn’t a fluke weather-wise, I may have to get used to a whole new kind of Halloween and ways to bring autumn into my home.
Anyone else having this problem with their crops of pumpkin?
Life In A Minimalist Farmhouse 
Fall is my favorite time of year too. But I haven’t seen any pumpkins yet. Thank goodness. We were passed over for fall and winter last time around so I’m really hoping and praying for a long, chilly fall and a cold winter. I think it’s been hot here for over a year. LOL Hope you have plenty of pumpkins to pick when fall does arrive!
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I sure hope a few farmers are able to keep their crops from going bad before October. I can’t imagine fall without my squashes. There is a large farm company that uses a greenhouse to have the earliest produce. They are one of the ones who are telling us they won’t have pumpkins come October.
I never complain about a mild winter, but yesterday a neighbor and I found what we call a “woolly bear” caterpillar. Around here we look at the patterns of black and brown to judge what kind of winter we will have. If nature isn’t totally messed up by this weird weather and we can count on the caterpillar to predict we are going to have a very long cold and harsh winter with only a short break of regular temps during the middle part of the season.
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Oh, I’ve got pumpkin problems all right! Last year the garden got wiped out by a mid-July hail storm – but somehow the pumpkins made a remarkable comeback and I harvested a bumper crop. Problem was they were all too late for Halloween, and most had to be harvested green before the first killing frost, and allowed to ripen inside (which they will do, although very slowly.) So I was cooking pumpkins all the way through April! In fact, I still have 5 gallons of frozen pumpkin puree in the freezer that I haven’t been able to make myself eat yet. I just got to a point where I couldn’t eat any more pumpkin!
So this year, the pumpkins are already ripening out there! There are at least 2 that look almost ready to harvest, and more…. MANY more on the way! Perhaps I should drag some puree out of the freezer and make some more pumpkin bread over the weekend.
On the bright side, I read recently that vitamin A helps to prevent melanoma… which is one of those things we pigment-less folk worry about, so I suppose it’s a good thing.
BTW – CatMan and I went for a long bike ride today and passed a big pumpkin patch along the way. Most looked very far along for this time of year, already orange and ready to harvest. I fear the world is changing before our eyes!
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It sure is changing I was hoping it was just here in PA. I’m sorry to hear your woes with pumpkin, I would gladly take some off your hands. Moving last spring I never put up any because I didn’t have a freezer. Now I’m kicking myself for not buying one.
My boys used to laugh because I put up so much applesauce each year. I would fill our entire minivan with bags of apples, prepare those and go back for more. We would fill the van every couple of days until there were no more apples left to bring home. The canned applesauce never lasted until the following year. Two boys and all their friends would get into it so often it would run out by early February! I guess with everything ripening early I should look to start my applesauce canning again soon. There doesn’t seem to be any time to rest lately!
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I LOVE PUMPKINGS
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Me too. It won’t be Halloween or autumn without them this year.
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just to prove I can spell pumpkins right — pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins (I thought I had gone back and corrected that –it just proves that you should not use capitals if you are a bad typist)
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I’m laughing so hard because I knew what you meant and didn’t realize you had misspelled Pumpkins! Goes to prove you will read what you assume is there not what you really see.
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so ture — I mean true
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LOL You just made me laugh a second time today. Thanks!
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🙂
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Pumpkins store for ages, we’re still eating the pumpkins we grew last summer (late winter here), just buy one and put it aside in a cool dark place.. Halloween isn’t that far away, last year we carved up a home grown one, so if we can have home grown pumpkins for Halloween in Australia I’m sure you can, even if they are way too early. All our celebrations are back to front over here.
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Thanks Kirsty, I will try that. I really want pumpkins and other squashes for Halloween and autumn.
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I love pumpkins and Halloween as well, and Autumn is generally my favourite season. How can you have a pumpkin free Halloween? Keep us posted on what you do nearer the time! Also, I have to say I agree with this not being a random fluke. Due to climatic changes our seasons are all kinds of messed up. Here in the south west of the UK, our August weather has been brooding clouds and rain one day, then high humidity and thunder the next.. Very strange.
By the way I though I was already ”following” you.. Apparently I wasn’t but I am now! (:
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I will keep you posted. Kirsty at Bowerbirdblue, believes if I keep them in a cool spot I can keep them till Halloween. I’m going to try and keep my fingers crossed.
Lately our seasons have been crazy. We barely had a winter. In an area that gets between 200-300 inches of snow per season we barely got 50. We usually have winter-like temps through March with some reminders in April from time to time. This year, March brought 80 degree or more temperatures. April, May, June, July, were the same with a less than a week of winter-like temps in April at the very end of the month. Now in August we are finally getting rain we didn’t have in the spring and cooler temps again.
Glad you are following me, I am following you and enjoy your posts.
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