The pumpkins, gathering, carving (10 pictures)

Funny thing. Last spring Daughter decided that she was going to plant squash and the pumpkin seeds in the manure pile out the back of the property and see what happened. With 5 horses, there is really a whole lotta horsey poopy stuff that is brought to a pile, smiling. The hill is tall, two years worth of stuff. One year that had been piled, the next year piled on top of that. And then both years’ poop brought out to the back last spring. Tall. About 10 feet tall at least, by probably 20 feet long by 15 feet wide. Does that seem a little unreasonable? Maybe my guesses of dimension are out of whack, but I know to climb that pile is quite the lift. This spring I am going to ask Son-in-Law to spread it out so there is more surface area, so we can plant more, smiling that big smile. The pumpkin seed comes from the seeds that Mirycreek so willingly shared. Only a few seeds were set, wish more had been, but Daughter was just unsure of how things would even grow. This is a non-irrigated section of the land. This next year, I will irrigate. We have units that can move things and that includes a 200 gallon square tank that I could fill up and keep there, allowing gravity to feed the water. Can’t imagine what will occur when this area is irrigated, smiling.

In the poopy pile was planted, of course, the pumpkin and spaghetti squash. Sure do wish butternut squash seed had been set, as I had horrible germination of butternut and only acquired one butternut squash, sigh....oh well...next year.

Yep, so I had been rather lazy to get out there and get the pumpkins out. Now this turned out to be a good thing. Youngest Daughter called me money morning, or should I say texted. She said that she was wondering if we had pumpkins in the pumpkin patch that she could come and get. Well, actually, not only her, but my Niece and her Daughter, whom are staying with gal until they can find a place to live. They have recently moved up from the coast in Mission, to live up here. Daughter manages a restaurant in our small town and provided a job for the Niece, so she moved. She will move into her own place with her baby girl of three years old, when she can find one. Oops. This is about pumpkins.

So yes, of course, we could have a pumpkin patch gathering and carve pumpkins that night. So, after the arrival at our home, we hooked up the little trailer to the quad and off to the pumpkin patch we went. Ya, that little girl was thrilled to see the orange, pink and green beauties upon the hill. We picked the monsters and rolled them down the hill to the squad. The child (and the adult children) were having the glory day. A beautiful and sunny warm day, spent having a whole lotta fun, in the pumpkin patch. A few nice pumpkins were gathered. Next year, a much larger area, from the enormous seeds that I have gathered from the pumpkin guts.....not a whole lotta gut, small cavity with little stringy stuff around the seeds within, pretty impressive.

I made an enormous sheppard’s pie for the family dinner and we all went up to youngest Daughter’s home for the pumpkin carve. The dinner was complemented with a beautiful strawberry salad that youngest gal created. I have a huge lasagna pan, made by Princess House and that holds more than enough to feed 10 people, with leftovers that keep the family yearning....oldest Grandson brags to his girlfriend of his Gramma’s Sheppard pie, and she got to taste it that night. Yes, agreement, the best EVER....ya, so onto pumpkin carving. After dinner, this began, and finished about 9:00, a long day, and it was time to light the pumpkins, only long enough for pictures and then off home. A good day. A good night. A good time with family and girlfriends of the Grandsons....enjoy the pictures and thanks for looking. Have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

This is the little girl, my Great Niece sitting on a big orange pumpkin, my Daughter helped ensure she found them all.

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A nice little trailer with a few good things within

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The bottom of some pumpkins got warts on them. Think it must be a fungal thing from the moistness below that great and wonderful body.

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One pumpkin that had grown a little ways away from the hill must have had a mouse that had taken up residence. I noticed a hole in one side and looked inside, couldn’t really see all that much, it was just a hole with some grass poking out....

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But when I cut the pumpkin in half with a saw, the mouse had removed a good part of the seeds in the seed cavity

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A part of the pumpkin was put into the cochin area, to see if there was interest, slowly, ever so slowly more and more came around....then everyone got hunks o’ pumpkin and it was a hit.

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And let the carving begin

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Ya, that’s me. Didn’t even know the picture was being taken. I didn’t carve, I wanted to gather the seeds. I “fixed” the photo, as I was unsure if my Niece would like her picture displayed, the little girl, my Great Niece, I am sure she would not mind, smiling. I could not believe how HUGE the seeds were from this pumpkin and very fat – only way to describe the seed within. I have a nice cup of seeds, the other seeds were used for making baked seeds. Yummmmmeee...haven’t tried them yet, but bet they have one honking big seed for munching on. And I was so surprised at the thickness of the flesh of the melon, amazing!! There was barely any stringiness that I usually associate with any pumpkin that I have store purchased. Son in Law said that he thought pumpkins he has seen before must be crossed with spaghetti squash, they are so stringy....a good thought.

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Glowing pumpkins

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Ya, oldest Grandson being a ham

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Ahh thanks for sharing Cindi

Looks like a great time was had by all!

Looks like such a fun time!

Also, I am intrigued. You planted the seeds straight into the manure pile? Looks like they were very happy there! Horse manure, I have. Also would love to grow spaghetti squash and it totally didn't work at all this year ... if it likes manure piles, that could be arranged!

Our pumpkins got planted in the old chicken run. They grew to a huge size, but there was a slight problem as the "pumpkins" started out yellow and then turned green. Some day soon we will be enjoying a meal of green squash.

I cant see your photos cynthia, it says they have been moved?

I know you will enjoy what you grow next year with it irrigated. I have years worth of pile from 4 horses as well, and every year it becomes a pumpkin patch. Every year I try growing something else there as well because the pile keeps expanding giving me more room to play with. Last year we picked 64 pumpkins. This year the bounty wasn't as good on the large ones, but the Jack be little's mulitplied like rabbits!
Good luck next year!

Miry, oh no!! Wonder why. Hillbilly posted after you and he saw them and when I pulled up this thread this morning they are there. Weird. if you still can't see them, I'll send you a personal email so you can see what happened in the pumpkin patch, you know they are all because of you, smiling that big smile. Mine did not get as big as the monster ones that you had posted pictures of Miry, but I think that was lack of rain all of August, September and well into October. Can't wait to see what irrigation does!! Tell me, I'll send them through email to you...you need to seed these pics, girl!

Ya, the old manure pile, from the spring that was cleaned from the paddocks the prior fall. So really, not that old...in the realm of things. Plant them in the poo, they LOVE poo, so much goodness in that stuff. Gonna be having many more seeds planted than this year, think there was only about 6 that went in the soil and who knows, maybe even birds got a couple of seeds, who knows. That was where we grew other squashes too, as I said, but even more squashes are going to be set back there to just let go. It was kind of a trial to see how well they would grow with competition from weeds etc., didn't seem to mind too much.

This year with the butternut squash though, I am going to keep those close at hand. I think they may need a little more nurturing. I only have one butternut squash from the seeds planted. Anywhere. Odd, cause last year we had many. Oh well.

Hillbilly, that be a whole lotta pumpkins you had goin' on there, nice beautiful days, CynthiaM.

NO worries I can see them now!
Probably was something to do with using the proxy server...
They look great Cynthia, so glad you had good harvest and such good fun with them...and yes that is what I loved about them, lots of good solid flesh.
I Like the idea of big pumpkins but cant really justify the extravagance of all that water and space just for fun, so my pumpkins have to produce!

Heres a wonderful pic sent me by Chickeesmom, she isnt able to post it so I hope she doesnt mind me sharing it, it would make such a great picture on the front of a seed package wouldnt it?
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and this is what we do with our pumpkins:
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