Pumpkin patchin'

The weekend weather has been so cooperative lately. Saturdays and Sundays have been sunny and crisp -- the epitome of good fall weather. During the week is when we get the blustery, gray days; I suppose that's fine since I'm inside all day anyway.

This past Saturday we took advantage of the perfect weather and went to the Red Hook Community Farm's Harvest Festival. We went two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. That year we didn't get a pumpkin because we were still living on 31st St and had absolutely nowhere to put it.

Deston had been itchin' to go "pumpkin patchin'" as he adorably calls it. With spacious porches on the front and back of our place, I knew this was the year to get back into the jack o' lantern game.

Bees doing their thing

We selected our pumpkins right away - Deston chose a darling, squat little thing with a lovely curved stem. For the jack o' lantern, I chose a tall fellow with one smooth side and one funky side. Together, they were $16 -- I was expecting them to be much more expensive. It's such a great feeling to know that these pumpkins were grown only a few miles from where we live.

Beehives

Walkin' to see the chickens

Awww

 



After the pumpkin selection, we enjoyed the reggae band, learned about bees, ate some food, got a balloon animal (there seem to be many of those in our life lately) and played with the Lairds, who had the same idea we did. Deston chased some chickens and even held a baby one. I missed that due to my visit to the First Aid stand  -- a bee landed on me and though it didn't sting, I think it scratched me.

Elsie and Deston

Elsie, Onnolee and Deston

That night I got to work carving. It's been a while since I've carved a pumpkin. Scooping out the guts is still my favorite part; I'm looking forward to eating some delicious toasted pepitas. Deston decided our big pumpkin should have a happy face. Here's the process.

The tall fellow with my carving implements

The guts!!

Wiped clean, hollowed, ready to go

Our happily surprised jack o' lantern

View 2

A light in the dark

I'm pleased with the result. When I placed it on the back porch (we'd never see it in front and I don't want to tempt any hooligans), our neighbor's daughter, who is around 12, was delighted and called people out to see it. We have plans to carve Deston's little pumpkin, so I'll post updates about that. This one will be scary, with claws. I'm not sure how I'll manage claws -- I might have to leave that to his ample imagination.