3,120 Mini Pumpkins! That’s right…two rows of seed produced over three-thousand mini pumpkins. I has no idea that we would end up with this many of the small pumpkins, when we started harvesting them this weekend. This is our first large scale pumpkin harvest, so I had no idea what to expect. I was hoping for several hundred, so needless to say, I am blown away by the fact that we have several thousand. Of course, we have grown ornamental pumpkins, including the mini varieties for several years, just on a much smaller scale. Shane wasn’t surprised in the least that when you plant 10 acres of land in pumpkin seed, you are going to end up with quite a few, you know since he grew up on a farm raising produce — however, this small town girl was still a little shocked at the actual numbers!
And here they are! Fresh picked and cleaned in the field. Hand-picked and hand counted, one by one. Shane and his dad started early in the morning, cutting each pumpkin from the vine, with me Once cut, they would pile the mini delights in between the rows as they made their way down through all the vines.
After all of the pumpkins were cut, the Pippa Hill Farms work crew ( which consisted of Shane’s sister and brother in law and our two nieces, who apparently chose the wrong weekend to come for a visit) got to work picking up each pumpkin, washing it in the field and loaded them into tubs and afterwards, laying them out in between hay to dry out in trailers.
Now, comes the fun part for me. Sorting through all the varieties. I could spend hours, just looking and sorting through all the pumpkins. Each one is so unique! Some of my FAVS are the pure white mini boos, the dark green that are almost black, the yellow and white stripes and the orange with just a splash of green. Like a mini work of art.
Now, what to do with all these mini pumpkins…of course after I decorate the entire house for fall using several hundred of them! We are selling them at our local Farmer’s Market in downtown Waco, Texas as well as other area stops and in our Etsy Shop. I can’t wait to also share with everyone some fun ideas and recipes on how to use these guys.