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Sunday, October 24, 2021

Falling for Pumpkins

Well, my bloggie frens, I kind of went over my budget and my minimalist idea to get just a single pumpkin this year. I actually have five of them, ranging in size from (and these are the scientific terms for punkin sizes, or as punkins are termed in pig Latin, "unkinpays"): Teenincy to small. 

The teeniest are actually not punkins, nor pumpkins. They are a gourd, but everyone thinks they are pumpkins. I'm not going to tell them they are not pumpkins! Who would have the heart? 

gourds and pumpkins with lighted candle

So I have two tiny pumpkins - ahem - one little pumpkin, and two small pie pumpkins (not shown) destined to be baked up into dog treats. 

Where did the three smallest ones come from? Were they a gift? Yes, I gave them to myself. They came from the agricultural students' test gardens. I went back over there. They came from the MUD in the test garden. I could feel them under my flip flops. I went foot-fishing for gourds.

You know you live in the desert when...you have "dress" flip flops, and "regular" flip flops. Thank goodness I didn't have my fanciest flip flops on! Please excuse the state of my feet; I have no excuse except to say the desert is hard on the feet.

flip flops in the desert

Shown: Fancy flip flops, suitable for interviews. These are pretty rare in that both glitter AND fake fur are present.
 
The entire test garden is now knocked down and plowed under! All the pretty corn plants and the tomatoes that had so many ripe fruits! Oh, those silly students! I wish I had gotten a corn stalk when I had the chance. Grrr. Only the itty-bittyest of the pumpkins-slash-gourds escaped the tractor. Sounds like a horror movie for vegetables: The Day the Tractor Came.

It really was a bit horrifying, because once I got home and set the purloined pumpkin on the mantel, FIVE BIG ANTS came out of a hole in the stem. I screamed, forgetting the size differential between myself and the ants. 

I have been unable to locate the ant family.

Later, we drove by the Sprouts natural food market, because they have the strangest pumpkins in town. [Author's note: Is anyone still reading this? ha ha] They were a bit out of my budget, but the pie pumpkins were not. I have not altered the colors in the photo of one of their big cardboard boxes of pumpkins. Such strange pumpkins! 

blue yellow orange white pink pumpkins

And the flesh-colored ones didn't even look real. They looked like styrofoam or plastic! Very odd. 

strange flat cinderella type pumpkins flesh colored

When I used to drive my husband around, he would get out with me and go look at something. Then, he began getting out maybe every other stop. Then, he stopped getting out most rides. Now, he almost never gets out. The doctors are finally trying to find out why he's gotten so weak. In the meantime, I got the idea to take photos of things I see, and then he looks on the camera and sees the sights, while we are still parked. 

I showed him the pie pumpkin bin. I took the photo and then went and asked him which to pick, which I thought was really sweet and inclusive of me:

pie pumpkins in box

And he said, "I don't give a BLEEP, get whatever BLEEP pumpkins you want, you ditzy BLEEP. You're the pumpkin maniac, not me."

Aw, did you think it was going to be a heartwarming story? NO! He has to rein me in sometimes, when I try to make life into a low-budget Hallmark Romantic Mystery or what have you.

Continuing our drive, I spotted a sign that said "Pumpkins." I didn't need more pumpkins, but still, the sign did say Pumpkins and the siren song of the pumpkin is difficult to resist. Diagnosis: Punkin Fevah. I followed the road the arrow pointed down -- for miles -- then another little handmade sign -- miles -- and another -- miles -- and another -- miles -- then a really big sign, pointing down an unpaved road!
 
Someone has a farmstand and a lot of pumpkins, ristras, gourds, and so forth! It was very cute and had a play area for kids. It was in what I'd call a "farming family" compound near the Rio Grande. Just a modest area. I was very surprised when my husband got out of the car and then walked slowly over to me, giving me a $20 to spend. I think he regretted calling me a Ditzy Bleep. No, he didn't regret it. Yippee! I was like a kid with her allowance, and I bought another ristra, this one to go in his room. He was very pleased, and surprised I didn't go for a bleeping pumpkin. But the smell of chiles drying is just incomparable and I know he loves it! It's almost a honey scent.

farmstand with pumpkins gourds
Shown: Bleeping Pumpkins (scientific name, Unkinpays bleepibleeps)

I hope you enjoyed going along with me on my aimless drive (with gas at $4 a gallon) into the World of Pumpkins. 


I hope you have a wonderful week! Many blog friends are having medical problems, or their loved ones are. You are in my prayers.

Kind regards,

Holly, the Olde Dame 





20 comments :

  1. I am glad you got your pumpkin fix. The colorful ones that picture should be framed it has such a wonderful look.
    Cathy

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  2. Love your desert "interview flip flops"!!

    Yes, I'm sure I'd do the same for a gourd or two...maybe a pumpkin added to my trunk cache.

    You did good. And I enjoyed tagging along.

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  3. Oh my! I'm glad you get out like that in search of pumpkins! Life is too short to stay home, don't you think? I love them all and think you made great choices! This was funny to read....but I'm sure you have to keep your sense of humor my friend! Sweet hugs! Happy punkin week!

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  4. Thanks for stopping over at my shoppe. I've opened and closed mine several times. I've decided to stick with it for longer and see what happens. Gives me an outlet to sell my crochet, I can't keep it all. I'm following your shoppe. Love me some punkns, I favor the orange ones, the others are intriguing but I grew up when punkins were all orange. I did stray off the farm this year and get a yellow punkin, it was close enough to orange. Love that igpayatinlay lingo....

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  5. I'm glad those wonderful old heirloom pumpkins (and squashes & gourds) are getting their moment. They don't need any carving, painting or other embellishments to have lots of personality.

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  6. I have seen those flesh colored ad colored in walmart and am not a fan. but others are because they are disaperaing. maybe the ants are eating them. ha ha... florida sand, black sand is hard on the feet and mine look like yours. enjoy your punkin spree.. i myself have bought exactly 2 pumkins in my life other than a few 99cent plastic for the kids...

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  7. Those flesh colored ones looked like ghost pumpkins, out to scare us at Halloween. I love that you give yourself gifts. I do the same.

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  8. The flesh colored pumpkins brought out the ghoul in me. I think I might buy a can of florescent white paint and spray them completely white so they would glow in the dark. A black marker would make the eyes, nose, and mouth. Perhaps some red glow-in-the-dark for the eyes. Fun, fun, fun.

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  9. I actually LIKE the flesh colored pumpkins. I think they are beautiful and look good mixed in with regular ones. It sounds like you got your pumpkin fix and found some great baby gourds in your interview only flip flops.

    Obviously your husband was more interested in a Hallmark disaster movie than a romance movie. I give him credit for his opinion, though. You certainly got lots of photos of pumpkins and I hope you now have fulfilled your fixation of them. And the cost of your gas astounds me. Hope your Halloween week is great.

    BTW, I thought of you last week when I went to Sam's. Their Christmas decorations have been out since September, at least that's how I remember it, and confirmed by a cashier.

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  10. What a fun post Holly! Well, perhaps no Hallmark romance, but at least it didn't turn into an episode on Investigation Discovery LOL. I come from a long, long, line of pumpkin hoarders and have met nary a pumpkin (nor gourd) I haven' loved. I seem to recall doing a post on different kinds of pumpkins, but I may be imagining that. If I did, it was before I got wise enough to start using labels. Unfortunately I did not get many this year...and could not find my dear little boo pumpkins anywhere for some reason... ~Robin~

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  11. Oh my, those blue pumpkins are so unusual looking, but pretty. I like the soft peach ones too. Jess had some
    of those on her table. But my favorite are the orange
    ones that you bought. And that's one of the best presents,
    when we buy something for ourselves. I love that picture of the pumpkins and the candle and the vase, it's so charming. I'm sorry your husband was cranky on the drive,
    but he might have been in a lot of discomfort at the time.
    Speaking of Hallmark shows - the Christmas shows started in October, and I've been watching them every day. Your fancy flip flops are cool.

    I'm glad you got a chance to go on a PUMPKIN drive. It really does some good for us when we see all those pumpkins in different shapes, sizes, and color. : )

    ~Sheri

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  12. I didn't know those little wee pumpkins were really gourds. I like all the different ones, even the warty ones. Too bad the test garden got plowed under. There should have been a sign telling people to take whatever produce they wanted before any plowing was done. Such waste.

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  13. I love pumpkins….don’t know why…?
    Thanks for sharing the nice pumpkin adventure. V

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  14. Great post!
    I grew up on a small farm and every year my brother had a HUGE crop of pumpkins. We are talking hundreds if not a thousand or more. Locally we were know as Pumpkin Town.
    Love those wonderful colored pumpkins. Where I live, pumpkins are just squirrel food. I did splurge and bought one warty one that the local friends of the library were selling at a fall festival. Knock on wood. The squirrels have left it alone so far. Normally I buy quite a few of the little pumpkin looking gourds and colorful gourds to throw in a wooden bowl. This year I really did not come across any for a good price, so I am gourdless.
    I had forgotten so I had to do a search to find out what a ristra was. I bet hubby was happy you thought of him ;-)

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  15. Our UW of Wisconsin research garden does the same thing. Watermelon, muskmelon, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkin, squash, grapes all go to waste. GRRRRR!!!

    Happy Halloween and Yay for pumpkins. xx Carla

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  16. Oh my! You DO love pumpkins!! I love them too, but decided just to have one big one this year for outside in the front yard. I am always afraid the neighborhood kids will decide to either steal them or smash them and I don't want to have to clean them up. I'm glad your hubby decided he might as well make the most of it and enjoy the adventure after all. (((hugs))) My hubby doesn't understand pumpkin fever either...that's why I only have one, really. LOL.

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  17. We have blue, pink and black pumpkins along with orange and white here. Love your jazzy flip-flops! Janice

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  18. Wowza! Look at all those pumpkins 🎃. Isn’t autumn 🍂 just splendid?

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  19. Thank you for sharing your pumpkin trip! I enjoyed it, and also enjoyed to learn something new. Happy Halloween to you!

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