Pumpkin Autopsy.

After being gone for the better part of two weeks and having the deer strip the pumpkin patch clean of it's beautiful lush leaves, I started taking a hard look at each and every pumpkin and the patch as a whole... I had no clue as to exactly WHEN to harvest the pumpkins since this was our first planting and pumpkins are just not that common in this area. At one point late last week, I discovered some odd markings on one of the nice larger pumpkins and knew instantly that it was infected with something. I immediately cut it from the patch and hauled it to the barn for it's autopsy...

Of course, I was not a happy camper that a perfectly good pumpkin was ruined. And upon really looking at it's exterior (minus the blistering) one would NEVER know something was wrong with the fruit! An autopsy was the only way to find out what was in the pumpkin causing it damage from the inside out and just how much had it been damaged at this point. I was already thinking boring worms from my previous research.

Doesn't that just make your stomach turn??!

And imagine our surprise to find out just how bad it was damaged... Yuck! After this ordeal, I really hit the internet hard that Sunday night and learned a lot of great info on when and how to harvest your pumpkin patch. And at that moment the countdown to the pumpkin harvest madness at Wilsons Farms began....