Pumpkin Distribution.

We have had the best week having all of the pumpkins picked up at the farm or delivering while in Columbus for work. We had roughly 30 decent sellable pumpkins and all 30 of them were sold/reserved within 2 days of posting online the first photo of them in the tractor loader bucket. Wow is all we can say... The first eight pumpkins were reserved for a wedding this Saturday. After that, the folks that came by the farm throughout the day Friday got to pick out their pumpkin. The rest were chosen by us and delivered to individuals along the way since yesterday. Here are a few of the happy buyers that walked away with one of our beautiful "babies"...

Spreading Wilsons Farms love of all things homegrown one pumpkin at a time!!

And finally tonight we delivered the last eight of the chosen few for the wedding this Saturday... Happy Groom to be!

Celebrating 100 Posts!

This is our 100th post on this blog! And we are still going at Wilsons Farms... We are striving to keep things moving along at a pretty speedy pace. All the while the summer's items are slowing and dwindling down, we are gearing up for fall and all it has to offer. And also at the same time we are watching our pumpkin patch grow!

Pumpkin Watch - First Week in September:

We are really enjoying watching these white pumpkins grow day-by-day... we have 8-10 in fairly large sizes now. I wonder every single day if a) how much bigger will they get by first of October? and b) will the insects destroy them first? We also have many baby pumpkins from 1 inch diameter to small pumpkins in 4 inch diameter. But the large mama-jama ones are the most fascinating! They are HUGE and must weigh in the 20-30 lb range already.... now we have to figure out WHEN to harvest them!

This is one of our largest ones so far. I am amazed each day at how big it is... just keep putting the insect dust on it in hopes she makes it to October!

This is what you are greeted with when you drive up our driveway these days... you can see the vines have run all the way into the driveway!

This is a great view into the middle of the patch... can you see all the white pumpkins in between the large leaves?

We did harvest one medium sized pumpkin this past weekend since I noticed that it's stem was yellowing and not the bright green it should be. Plus something had drilled into its sides in 7-8 spots.

So I cut the pumpkin off the vine and we did a research and destroy experiment. First off, it had to weigh almost 20 lbs and is no where near the size of our large ones! And it was very easy to slice open... we cut it to see WHAT was drilling into it... and only found small 1 inch long paths into the thick rhine that did not have an actual worm or insect in them... Not sure why... But, the one that bored in through the vine did it's destruction enough to cut off the supply to the fruit.

I do feel a tad better hoping that the strong thick rhine deterred them from getting all the way inside to the soft middle... where the real destruction can take place. Fingers crossed they all make it to October!

A Week on the Farm.

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past 7 days... just so super busy! Hubby's been traveling and I just cannot seem to keep caught up w/ everything going on in our world. Plus, I had a huge birthday this past Wednesday and it has been one celebration after another...

Here are some random photos over the past week:

The "good" side of the pumpkin patch (the white pumpkins) is still kicking!

Tuesday's harvest!

Lots of baby pumpkins all down the long runners.

First sunflower has bloomed... of the few that actually did not get mowed down by the deer early on.

Unfortunately, some of the baby pumpkins are hit by insects, etc. early on... seems to be happening a lot so far. Bummer.

Some other insect is drilling small holes into the pumpkins too. Not sure what at this time... or what to do.

Cleaning Up the Pumpkin Patch.

Saturday was spent doing some serious crop control work in the pumpkin patch... cutting/pulling weeds, thinning out the yellowed/brown pumpkin vines on the upper side of the patch, spraying fungicide, etc. It was blazing hot in the summer heat and humidity... but, it needed to be done. And at this point if we have even one single orange pumpkin out of this patch it will be a miracle. The other side right now is an entirely different story! Of course, between the weather and the bug population anything can happen! Besides it's only August and the pumpkins have another 2 months to grow.... that's a really long time for the bugs to make their way in and do their damage. If you compare last Sunday's posted photo of the "yellowed" pumpkin vines to today's you will see a major renovation!

I know... it's sad, isn't it? But, we definitely thinned them out... and can only hope the few we left in the patch will produce something...

The other side of the patch is looking great!

We even found a couple of nice sized pumpkins starting up!!

Few other things found around the farm on Saturday: Second planting of corn is just now starting to come in!

The peas are starting to bloom again! Unbelievable!!

Nice sized Fuji apple on the apple tree!

Some poor soul braved the sticky, itchy and scratchy conditions of the tall okra plants and did some okra picking!

Some poor baby dog rolled in the big mud puddle in the front 40 and had to get bathed.

The cool water does feel good though!

The end of the day harvest made a great ending to the day... Seems the green beans are reproducing again!

Another Day on the Farm

Earlier this week we were able to go over and pick some more veggies from the garden... At this point, the cucumbers are pretty much gone, the squash and zucchini have been gone and the tomatoes are about gone. The peas seem to be re-blooming and the green beans are growing more beans! And then as stated in my previous post, the okra is coming in... There are still a few peppers coming in too.

Tomatoes are still ripening, but the vines are browning.

The okra is coming in! Just wish the tall plants were not so close together since they are sticky and itchy!

Been waiting a LONG time for the "red" bell peppers to actually turn red... and look who is on the plant ready to sink its teeth into my peppers!

And then there is the story of our pumpkins... This is the only one so far to make it to this large size in our original garden... Judging from the condition of its vines, it's probably not going to make it.

And this is what's left of my other large pumpkin... looks like nature took a turn for the worse while I was gone. Boo!

And then there are these two odd looking ones on the same nearby vines in the original garden... Just hope they make it.

And then there is our pumpkin patch in the front 40... one side is eat up with the fungus among-us... Leaves are yellowing with dark brown trunks... In serious need of some TLC...

And then the other half of the patch is running like crazy and has these all over the place!

Here's to hoping we can weed out and cut back/pull up all the bad plants in the pumpkin patch this weekend.

Quick Thursday PIcking!

We are still getting a lot of the afternoon and evening thunderstorms this week so our visits to the farm are limited and usually very short before the rain drives us away. But, we did make it to pick on Thursday night before the large drops came and sent us running!

Just a couple of highlights...

The big pumpkin patch is coming in pretty quick.

The older planting of pumpkins is stretching way outside of the garden... just trying to keep them from taking over the blueberry bushes!

The ears of corn are getting larger too!

Thursday's harvest... Nice!