A Pumpkin Story

This was my first year of growing pumpkins.

It all started with a few seeds:

April 7, 2012

They grew nicely indoors:

May 7, 2012

And were successfully transplanted outside to the pumpkin patch:

Throughout June, July and August, I watered it faithfully and watched the vines grow wild and massive. But no pumpkins showed up until September!

Sept. 30, 2012

This one was the biggest of the initial three. We dubbed it "Big Al"

This one, Little Al, grew outside the fence. But he proved to outgrow Big Al! The third pumpkin broke off the vine and quickly rotted into nothing.

 This is Baby BooBoo who was very cute, but showed no promise of being edible.

Fast forward to the end of October and the vines had mostly died off from the frosts. Big Al was still rippening, however, and I wanted him to get as orange as possible!

Oct. 14, 2012

Baby BooBoo wasn't going to grow any bigger, but he hung in there.

Little Al didn't make it. He looked huge and ripe, but a close inspection revealed his stem had cracked away from the vine and a stream of bugs was crawling in and out of him.

I thought we could at least carve him as our jack-o-lantern. However, his insides were liquidy and rotten. He only lasted a couple days before he caved in on himself completely.

As for Big Al? He made it all the way.

October 20. 2012

From farm to freezer:

I admit that I did feel some pangs of sadness. Not unlike what I imagine a farmer would feel when slaughtering his first pig. So, I thanked Al for the joy of watching him grow and develop and for the wonderful nutritious food he would provide for us. Then I stabbed away with my knife and gutted him out. :) I think the moral of this story is to never name your pumpkin!