Come to our “pick your own” pumpkin Patch in Iowa

      “Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He’s gotta pick this one. He’s got to. I don’t see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there’s not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see. “

                                  Linus  from It’s The Great Pumkin Charlie Brown
 

This is one of the pumkin hills  that will greet you as  you drive on to our property.

Here’s  a picture taken behind the barn with another 9 pumpkin hills.

     There is something magical about a pumpkin patch for me.  I love watching the vines take over a piece of ground, then there’s   the  large yellow flowers, I’ve been told  can be  fried  up like mushrooms.  Later, when the fruit  begin to form, it’s fun to  discover them hidden under the large green canopy of leaves.

     We have this area behind our old barn  that just begged  to have  a pumpkin patch on it , so  late May, I decided I would take my best shot at creating  a pumpkin patch for the grandkids.

     Last night I did some additional reading  and discovered…

#1  I will  need to water pumpkins regularly, especially as we enter the dryer months of July and August.

#2  The most effective way to water pumpkins  is with a “drip” garden hose, that gently soaks the soil all around the plants.

#3  As the vines shoot out  from the “Mother”  hill, additional roots are thrust into the ground along the vine to  collect water.

#4  It is  recommended to  mulch around the plant to help keep the weeds down and conserve the moisture in the soil.

    There will be many more pumpkins than the grand kids will want, so here’s the deal..for $3.00 a piece, you are invited to come out and pick your own pumpkin.  If you plan ahead, you might even want to spend the night in our B and B, or take home some apples from our small orchard.

     This is shaping up to be a bumper year for the orchard.  In case you’re wondering..we have  Royal Court (it’s a variety of Cortland), Gala, 3 varieties of Red Delicious (including an an heirloom variety)  Braeburn, Honeycrisp, Suncrisp, Gingergold and Liberty.  We only have 100 trees..so it’s first come first, serve.

     I plan to keep posting photos of the pumpkin patch as we head into the Fall.  Drop me a line if you want directions on how to get here.

    ps  The baby chicks are doing great, as are the 6 little runt pigs we recently acquired….none of which I’ve named as per request of Kristina, Winston’s good friend from Washington.

pss   You’ll have to excuse me now, while I go take a  power-nap.  The 2nd concert of the 2009 Bear River Concert Series is tonight..so it’s going to be a full weekend.