Well the weather has definitely turned cold here on the farm. We have the fire going all the time, and we have had the first frost of the season.
With the first frost comes the end of our harvest. The plants start to die, and we are in a rush to get the last of the produce in.
On Wednesday afternoon, Country Boy announced that we needed to go down to the pumpkin patch and collect the pumpkins in. Last year we ended up with about 47 pumpkin, and I used the last of it up just last week. Perfect timing.
Country Boy wasn’t sure we would get quite so many this year. Our summer has been hot and dry, and we haven’t had much rain (more about that another time), which, according to Country Boy, isn’t good for pumpkin growing.
As it turns out, he was wrong. Very, VERY wrong.
In amongst the grass, there were pumpkins everywhere. 137 pumpkins in all! Just under half had ripened properly, but will be great for the pigs to eat (yay – free pig food) but there are still about 70 pumpkins for us… and that is just the Butternut pumpkins. We haven’t picked the Queensland Blues or Nuggets yet.
By the time we had finished collecting them all in, the sun was beginning to set, and it was getting cold. It took two wheelbarrow loads to get the pumpkins back to the house.
This is what 70 butternut pumpkins looks like on the front veranda. I think we will be eating lots of pumpkins over the coming months, and giving lots away too!
I've got to ask – *where* do you store that many pumpkins long term??