craftybear

Have you been to the Pumpkin Patch yet to pick out your Pumpkins?

http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetables/a/Pumpkins.htm

I was asking my husband if he enjoyed picking out his pumpkin when he was a little boy.

He lived on a farm and his parents never took the boys to a pumpkin patch, how sad!

So hopefully next weekend I can take him to see is first pumpkin patch. He was a diabetic as a kid and didn't get to do much with his parents, long story. He is no longer a diabetic now since he got his kidney and pancreas transplant on September 18, 1990. He is now 55 years old, and never been to a pumpkin patch.

So now it is fun to bake for him.

sueisallaboutquilts

Oh no! It's almost time for the Great Pumpkin!! :D
I need to get going !

Barbm

we grow our pumpkins for the kids. I even can some and bake the seeds.

mommaB

Went today!! It was so beautiful out. My son and I took his daughter and even my ex!! 6 pumpkins later... :lol: :lol:

The crop looked very nice this year, but seemed to have pricklier stems than in the past. :cry: OUCH

TIPS: Take a very sharp folding knife or hand pruners if you are actually going to the field..our patch does not provide them and breaking them off often leaves the 'handle' too short..BTW..don't carry your pumpkins by the 'handle'..support them from underneath!!

Find a flat, level place to see how they're going to sit on your porch or stoop..they might not actually sit too well on level surfaces (the voice of experience speaks!!)

The most important tip === take your time, enjoy your trip and HAVE FUN!!

craftybear

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

Have fun carving them and be careful!

raptureready

We now have several in our area but when I was a kid we grew our own. There are several around here that are very commercial but one (the one I shop at) is a family thing. The grandparents provide the land, the parents help with the saving seeds, planting, etc. However 90% of the heavy work is done by the grandkids. The prices are very reasonable, we got one large reg. pumpkin, two large gourds, three small ones, to huge ones, a medium size pumpkin and a really big warty/knobby one all for $14.50! The great part is that 100% of the money goes into a fund and whatever grandkids are going to college that year get to split it for their tuition/books/etc. Not only do I always go there but I've turned some of my friends onto it too. It's all done right there at their farm with the pumpkins laid out in organized sections on the huge front lawn. You can also purchase bales of straw for $3.00 and large corn shocks for $4. They have bunches of red wagons to pull around to put your pumpkins in.

If anyone is close by Champaign County in Illinois pm me and I'll tell you how to get there. I can't get email notifications for the next two months because I was deleting something and accidentally hit the "spam" button. OOooops!