The Weblog

PLEASE GO TO OUR NEW WEBSITE

CSAFarmersMarket.net



 
View the Complete Weblog

PUMPKIN Fairies



We all love to visit the local pumpkin patches in the fall and amble through them to pick the perfect pumpkin for Halloween. Sometimes those pumpkin patch farms have crop failures and have no or very few pumpkins; like every farmer this is usually the result of weather or disease.

Over the last month or so I have been driving past one such pumpkin patch. The frost hit, the vines died and normally when the vines are gone pumpkins can be seen, but there were almost no pumpkins in the patch, a week later a pumpkin fairy must have visited in the night and there were pumpkins neatly growing in a predictable fashion with one small, one medium and one large pumpkin spaced every 5 feet apart.

Another day I drove by and I was amazed that on the side of a hill there were many huge mega size pumpkins, I had to shake my head and rub my eyes as I was in shock that they managed to grow such huge pumpkins. I did not remember seeing them there before, although I suspect the pumpkin fairy that visited them must have been a professional weight lifter pumpkin fairy in order to be able to carry such huge pumpkins.

This year we (White Pine Farm) had an almost total squash/pumpkin failure and the visions of these pumpkins must have been stuck in my brain for as I slept I dreamt of cresting over one of our hills and seeing five foot tall vines with huge squash and pumpkins growing gloriously everywhere. Maybe the dream will become reality next year, farmers are always hoping the next year will be better.

CSA Farmers Market does not have any fairies for pumpkins or squash, we have to rely on someone in the group to have a successful year with those crops; fortunately this year Law Family Farm and Ulrich Farms have been blessed with a reasonable harvest of squash and they did it without the help of a pumpkin fairy.

Until Next Time
Marian Listwak