Good morning. Our pumpkin patch is almost ready to harvest. And I am feeling comfortable enough to call this season a success! I have never grown a proper pumpkin patch before but we have piles of little kids around now and so Our John wanted to grow them a pumpkin each.
The kids will carve them up and set them on their stoop. Now, you know how I feel about the waste of good fruit rotting on city steps but there you are. As the locals here like to point out to me – the foreigner- this is how we do it in America.
However the children are only allowed ONE PUMPKIN EACH!
And the rest I will save for pig food and cow feed. And chicken feed of course.
I am not sure how many pumpkins are in our little patch, maybe twenty five or more. I will save the seeds from the biggest healthiest pumpkin and next year we will grow double that number and hope for another good growing season.
More on my annual seed saving another day.
When to pick a pumpkin
Wait until the peduncle (the stalk between the pumpkin and the vines) has dried up and begins to brown. The vines will have begun to die off. The peduncle or stalk (it makes a good handle) is the conduit for water and nutrients and once nature has turned the tap off and the stalk and consequently the vine dies off then you know your pumpkins are ready to pick.
Pick your pumpkin by cutting the peduncle with a sharp knife of secateurs where the stalk joins the dying vine. Do not break pumpkin off at its point of connection to the peduncle. It will not keep. Rot will set in. Cut the peduncle so you have a handle left on the pumpkin. And the pumpkin remains sealed.
Don’t buy a pumpkin without its stalk either.
I will have more pumpkin pictures once harvest begins.
I cut a small orange pumpkin that had a dried up stalk yesterday. This one is smaller and ripened just a little earlier and I picked it to grate for the chicks. I think in a week or so the rest will be ready for harvest.
Pumpkin is very good for humans. And for my animals. It is high in potassium, (and fiber) is great for the bowels and will move internal parasites on in birds. So I love going into winter with a good supply curing in the basement.
“Pumpkin is a powerhouse food that is low in calories and high in many health-promoting phytochemicals,” says Kiran Campbell, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Michigan. “A few nutrients that make pumpkin especially beneficial are potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and fiber.”
So get you some fresh pumpkin!
The PopPops and Turkeys
No murders in the night. Whew. The new system is working really well.
The PopPops and the turkeys move from barn to field in the morning and back again in the evening with aplomb. The PopPops got it in one. And the turkeys are getting used to the idea.
I put a box into the pen so the piglets could not get to the turkey feed. Plus I am encouraging the turkeys to come into the barn to roost in the night. It is all about training.
Even the ducks sleep close to the barn at night.
Time for me to get to work!
Have a lovely day.
Celi
PS Attention TKG Tenners. You have a TKG TAKE TEN of the PopPops and The Turkeys going up on Substack this evening at the usual time of 5 pm. (Subscribe HERE and upgrade if you would like to watch a video or two a week).
The TKG Sunday newsletter, which is free to all, goes out at around noon on Sunday.
The Kitchen's Garden 
25 responses to “How to tell if a Pumpkin is ready to harvest.”
They look fantastic! I tried growing pumpkins in Atllanta (many yeasr ago) but the chipmunks and squirrels ate the shoots.
Oh no!! They don’t do that in the cartoons!’ 😂
Ha ha – I know, I used to think they were cute! Chip and Dale eat nuts, but real chipmunks like fruit and veg too.
I have never seen a chipmunk but this year I have a couple of squirrels which we only suspected were here before / do you remember the big nests in the elm?
They are very cute, my cat used to brigng them in and I had to save them!
How wonderful that each child will get their own pumpkin to carve! We had to share one among 4 kids and our dad did most of the cutting. Looking forward to reading about your annual seed saving! We are starting to do that now.
Yes! I only save the easy ones. I had such terrible luck with the beans this year so I am hoping my one bean seeds will do better.
AH, it really is getting to be fall!
I remember the first time my dad grew pumpkins – just for the kids. It was such a delight – watching them appear so tiny then growing until we got to harvest them actually in the garden among the vines (that we had carefully avoided stepping on forever it seemed!). What a wonderful experience you are giving. Have lovely weekend!
Not the F word!!! It is still late summer.and yes! The kids will be so excited.
Pumpkin fields have a distinct smell. Something in the vines I think? Do you notice that as you move through that area? I have large fields down the highway and notice the smell every fall. I am hoping that is a natural smell and not something chemical??
It is the nightshade scent. Tomatoes and peppers smell that way too. Hopefully not too many chemicals on your patch!
Yes, that makes sense and with the huge fields the smell just hangs over everything! I believe these are fields managed by a local organic farmer. One year corn, the next pumpkins. Some sold at their own stands/farm, some shipped off to stores.
That is a nice rotation. We will plant sweet corn into this pumpkin patch next spring!
That makes me happy to know that you agree with their plans 🙂
I love pumpkins and use them in many recipes. An Australian friend gave me a pumpkin soup recipe to die for. Like you, I hate the waste but I love the tradition of a jack-o-lantern. So instead of carving one, we would draw a face on a pumpkin (my daughter has been an artist since she was born so we had some cool faces) and put it in the window for Halloween. On Nov 1 I chopped it up and made soup, stew, bread or cake. The seeds were salted and roasted for a snack. Win-win. Your patch looks excellent!
A big YES to pumpkin soup!
I also make a lot of pumpkin soup. It is one of my favorite comfort foods. We make it a lot in New Zealand!
Although it does go into the compost, I’ve always hated to waste perfectly good fruit every year just for one night… Would so appreciate it if any of you could share your favourite flavours to put in Pumpkin Soup, please?
One year a friend and I went to a big pumpkin farm which had a pick your own field and big bins of already harvested pumpkins. We went and harvested our own, there were a lot of different variety and color pumpkins. They also had a small apple orchard and a building where they had apple cider, apple or pumpkin donuts and other farm products. We had a grand day. I ended up making a lot of pumpkin bread plus the seeds for snacks. The home made pumpkin puree was far superior to the canned stuff.
what a great day! I Am definitely going to put as much pumpkin puree for soup in the freezer as possible.
I just put another load of tomato sauce in the freezer too.
I love pumpkins
When our crew cut up the pumpkins i would save the ‘innards’ in a big bowl and take them out to the chickens. They loved poking around in all that squishiness to slurp up the pulp and eat the seeds. Your crooks would love it!
Hahah! CHOOKS!
I read that pumpkin seeds are good for worms in chooks … You are so right about the pumpkin stem .. always make it last longer
As per usual, I wandered off down another garden path after wondering where such an interesting word like ‘peduncle’ had its roots… (pun intended, lol)
Found a bunch of very specific uses here from the Missouri Botanical Garden… http://www.mobot.org/mobot/latindict/keyDetail.aspx?keyWord=peduncle
Thanks for launching another voyage of discovery Celi!