This past July I sweated profusely as I put 30 pumpkin seedlings in the ground. I didn’t mind the heat or the sweat because in my mind I could see my children, my nieces, and little cousins picking pumpkins from a pumpkin patch not from a bin or pile at the store, but from a real live pumpkin patch. Never mind that I had never grown a pumpkin before nor had I seen anyone around me do it, this was my goal. I wasn’t shooting for Halloween as my target date, I was shooting for November- Thanksgiving. That part turned out just about right, we did have pumpkins but we needed to pick them early as the cool wet rains we kept having were causing a problem with the powdery mildew. As it happened, my nieces and my cousin, Luke -a preschooler, were around on Sunday so I hauled them all out and we picked pumpkins! What fun!!
If you have never heard a child giggle or squeal with delight at the discovery in a garden- you, my friend, have not experienced one of the finer things in life.
The pumpkin patch about a month old. Growing strong and beautiful.
Looking for pumpkins amid all the large leaves. These pumpkins did not turn orange as they should have. Instead we had lovely molted green pumpkins with an orange splash. No bother, it was still fun and the unusual pumpkins were pretty.
Katie found a baby, the kids all like the babies just as well as the big ones.
Rylie has found one, with a nice orange splotch. She is twisting it to break the stem off.
Luke has just discovered that the stem of a pumpkin is prickly!
Jonathan totes the large pumpkin for Rylie, he was waiting with his trusty knife if the twisting did not work.
Uncle Tony and Katie. Tony requested that we pick pumpkins when he could be around.
Luke took to wrestling the pumpkins free and Sierra tried to help.
Kitchen shears to the rescue, Sierra helps Luke get his prize
Success!
A pile of cute kids and pumpkins! We will do this again next year. However, I plant to set a date and invite all the other cousins. We will watch It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and eat something – maybe roasted pumpkin seeds that we harvest and roast ourselves. I also plan to plant some “Mighty Max” pumpkins that reach weights of over 100 lbs as well as smaller pumpkins that can be handled by smaller pickers. The seed order will be placed this Friday. I just can’t wait.
Holly K. Ross 
Great pictures!! The girls were very excited about this and loved showing us each and every pumpkin!
I am so glad that they enjoyed it, too. Evening light does make it easy to get some good pictures and of course, such cute girls. Next year should be even more fun.
Very cool Holly. You are making great memories with the kiddos.
Thank you! The memories are great- not just for the kids but for me.
Love this 🙂 It’s a great activity for kids. Last year my granddaughter and I scratched words into the skin of the babies and watched them grow. My husband won a giant pumpkin competition a few years ago with a tip from his old dad – a small jar of glucose. He ran a piece of string as a dripper line from the jar to a small slit in the stem of the healthiest growing pumpkin.
How cool!
It looks like everyone had a blast. I know it did. It’ll be interesting to see them wrestle a 100-pound pumpkin!
Yes it will! I picture us rolling a huge pumpkin out of the patch like Linus did.
Should be “I did” not it!
Love that you’re getting kids involved in growing their own food. So great for everyone to know who much work it takes and to really appreciate their dinner!
Thanks, that’s what I thought, too! Kids also eat more veggies when they help grow them. Our labor makes the rewards sweeter.