Photo Courtesy of Huffington Post
We made it to the pumpkin patch a little late this year. The enormous pumpkins have already been picked up, harvested, delivered to the stores around the area and probably even beyond their mountainous slopes.
It’s quite a business. I recently heard statistics that pumpkins were reaching nearly 1800 pounds! The prize for a 1725 pounder from Canton, Ohio won $2,500 and kicked the leading title holder from Rhode Island to the curb.
These breeds are for the serious size manipulators, not the average farmer with hills and fields of round, orange orbs sticking out like beach balls among the greenery.
Can a ton pumpkin be in our near future? Two thousand pounds of pulp and seeds the size of my palm?
And what would you do with such a creature? Hollow it out and insert tractor beam lights? Maybe use it as a composting shack? Add wheels and let regal horses pull you to a ball hosted by a prince? No, wait, that gig was already taken by Cinderella. Oops!
They say you can hear the huge pumpkins growing.
What?
Who is sitting in a field listening for the expanding sounds of a fruit? Charlie Brown? We all laughed at Linus for sitting in the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin to rise up while his friends gathered edible goodies from the neighbors. But maybe he was on to something. Makes Sally seem wiser now that you think about it. And even Linus seems to be on target with his comment to Lucy as she scoops out the insides of a jack-o-lantern and he moans, “You didn’t tell me you were going to kill it!”
Good grief!
I’ll just settle for the little pumpkins that I can lift without the use of a forklift.
But I am intrigued. They say the seeds will be dried and given to anyone who asks for them. Maybe just one or two would add a little ambiance to my autumn garden.
Perhaps I could plot its growth of girth and capture its growing pains. I’ll have to get back to you on that one as I’ll need to measure my yard to see if there is enough room for such a venture. Apparently I have a few months to think about it.
In the meantime, we have a regular sized pumpkin carved by my son to display the headless horseman – complete with horse and pumpkin head held up to the sky – awash with an eerie glow when the candle inside is lit. I think he did an excellent job!
The Pumpkin Patch
Caleb’s Pumpkin
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Writingfeemail's Blog 
the first snap made me laugh a lot!
Glad you liked it!
I always get the little pumpkins to put on the front porch railing at our house. Alex usually carves a bigger one. The carving on yours is amazingly spectacular! Wow! I don’t know how anybody gets those massive pumpkins home unless they have an 18 wheeler!
Those huge one boggle the mind, don’t they! I bet little pumpkins around the porch railing is gorgeous. I prefer something manageable and I’ll pass on the compliment to my son – he’ll appreciate it. Thanks.
I like the thought of listening to it grow. You must do that! I’d try, but nothing but daffodils and some purple plants survive the deer around here.
We grew a few pumpkins last year, but just normal sized ones. I can’t even imagine one as large as that 1725 lb. monster. Yikes!
The journey from Champagne to Pumpkin through your blog is wonderful, although i am going to prefer the first one. I am just joking. But I never imagined that pumpkin can be so huge and its wonderful to see your son doing such an wonderful job. But what that last image all about, i did not get that one,
We traditionally carve pumpkins and then place a candle inside. In the dark, you get the glow of the shape around the carving. Spooky! Glad you liked it.
Its just looking like a horse… wonderful work… I hope this one is for Choco! He must be feeling very honored.
My son refers to it as Choco and Dad! And since I have it right on the front porch, I think he’s feeling honored indeed.
I love Caleb’s pumpkin! That’s great.
And Charlie Brown’s Halloween special: that brings back the memories!
We love Charlie’s specials – all of them. And the talk about listening to the huge pumpkins grow just reminded me of Linus in that patch. I’m glad you enjoyed and I tell Caleb he has your approval!
What a wonderfully written post. You have such wit. I am intrigued with your philosophical angle on the subject of giant pumpkins. And, Caleb’s pumpkin is fabulous!
Thank you! These giant pumpkins amaze me. And people have stories about trying to grow them like slathering oils on the outside to keep them from splitting. It seems it would almost be a full time job. Glad you enjoyed the post. I had fun with it.
Absolutely amazing. I’d be in cucubrita-heaven if I grew a pumpkin that huge or had a big successful crop as you have. Fun post and photos.
The squash vine borers would never let my plants live long enough to produce such magnificent fruit. In my opinion, the squash vine borer is one of the most evil demon in the garden world. It’s alot of work keeping regular size squash plants growing and fruitful, I can’t imagine keeping pumpkin vines alive and pest free.
I’m curious, how do you keep your vines safe from the squash-vine-borer?
I look forward to hearing any thoughts about SVB control. I figure you must have it down to an art. 🙂
You must be a serious farmer yourself to know about the family it belongs to and the dreaded squash vine borer, which hasn’t been a problem for us – though we do not farm either on a loarge scale. Yeah, if I thought I could grow a pumpkin this large, I probably would give it a go. But I cannot image it. Our problem with the fruits of the regular plants, is finding enough neighbors to donate the extra it to. LOL
Thanks. I’m glad you all don’t have the SVB problem. I’m not a serious farmer. I’m just a small scale gardener and a bit of an obsessive with squash growing. If I lived in a warmer region, I’d have squash growing all the time just to try and find the perfect one. lol We give away all our excess vegetables to friends, co-workers and anyone else who’ll take it. Sharing our harvest is one of the enjoyable aspects of gardening we look forward too each year. 🙂
I want to hear a pumpkin grow! Never knew that little tidbit. I used to make a big production out of carving a pumpkin but since the kids are gone, I only buy the little ones to decorate. Thanks for letting me share in the fun of your headless horseman pumpkin. That is terrific!
Thank you Annie. I’ve turned the carving over to my son – he’s 22 now. I like the little ones too. They survive through Thanksgiving!
The nursery tythme Peter Peter Pumkin Eater is running through my mind lol
I guess this explains where he got the shell to put his wife in.
Glad you got a chuckle out of my pipe story lol
That’s perfect! I had forgotten about that nursery rhyme. And I loved your pipe story. I could just see me doing the same thing. Guess it speaks well of us that neither knew what kind of shop it was. LOL!
Very cool carving of the headless horseman. Sadly, my talent extends to three triangles and a half moon. A girl could dream….
Don’t feel bad. He didn’t carve anything like this until the influence of a girlfriend encouraged him to take it on. Although, as you can tell, dear ole mom is taking some credit. I say that’s fair, don’t you!
Your comment cracked me up today! Still giggling.. I will give you a hint though.. I really did do the red Kool Aid thing and it really did stain her a pinkish red for about a week. Which was unfortunate since she was one of the star volley ball players for our college.. giggles. We did become good friends after that. I’ll have which one is bogus (yes just ONE is false) on tomorrow’s post.
I’d be afraid not to be your friend after that! LOL. I thought that was hilarious and showed your genius creativity! Cant wait to read the next post.
We certainly know about giant pumpkins here in Nova Scotia. Ever hear of Mr. Howard Dill? (check him out on Google)
Just want to say I really like how you write. 🙂
Thanks and I’ll ceck out Mr. Dill!
I’d forgotten all about “The Great Pumpkin”! I loved all those “Peanuts” specials when they’d air. Thumbs up on your son’s pumpkin carving – it’s divine!
I can even hear the music from one of the ‘Peanuts’ specials and just feel happy. I’m glad you enjoyed Caleb’s pumpkin. I think he’s flattered by the nice comments.
Terrific carving! …But there’s something about those huge pumpkins that grosses me out… Jabba the Hut, I guess. ..
Thanks! I thought my son did a great job. I’m just glad he didn’t have to tackle the giant pumpkin.
An excellent pumpkin carving! It put ours to shame…
Thanks for visiting and for the comment. I bet your carving is great. Enjoy Halloween!
Love the photos of the great pumpkin and the carved one. What would you do with a pumpkin the size of the one in the photo?! That would make a lot of pumpkin pie! Sheila
I’m still trying to figure out what one would do with such a pumpkin. You probably don’t want to know all of the crazy things that occured to me. If you have some ideas, please share!