Will-Hopi

Saturday was sunny and nice, above normal temps right into the high seventies. Wow, was it a perfect Indian summer day! Robert, a young man Will had met while getting a piece of sheet metal bent to form at a local metal fabrication shop, said he’d love to pick up some extra work at our place as he loves everything “farm.” So he came out and helped Will lug a very bountiful crop of pumpkins and squash in out of the garden and old pig pasture. And when I say “bountiful” I mean it in every sense of the word. There were several tractor bucket-loads of squash and pumpkins. We brought some into the house to store and the rest went to the new barn. We’ll bring a few at a time up to harvest seed and bury the rest in a cave of square bales to protect them from freezing.

Tractor-load-of-squash

We had one Howden pumpkin that weighed in at 58 pounds! Wow, were they ever productive. We’ll harvest seeds from them and then feed them to our goats and cattle. Of course, I’m going to make pumpkin pies from a couple of the Winter Luxury pumpkins — that’s what they’re famous for.

Big-Howden

I’m really tickled at our Canada Crookneck squash as I’ve never grown them before. They are an ancestor of modern butternuts but have a very long neck, which is all meat and no seeds. They were very productive and made an excellent crop, direct seeded, here in Northern Minnesota. They also store very well, so I’m already planning on baking a few.

I got the onions pulled but I’ve got to finish digging potatoes. I’m doing a little bit at a time to keep my post-surgery belly happy. But daily, it is getting less sore and I’m feeling better and better.

The goats are happily munching the squash and pumpkins that were too immature to store and the few that I’ve already seeded. I’m still picking tomatoes, which are continuing to ripen despite the frost. Luckily, many were not damaged by the frost which was a surprise as it was a pretty cold one. Our back porch is full of ice cream pail lids of drying tomato seeds and cookie sheets full of Hopi Pale Grey squash and Winter Luxury seeds and I’m still canning madly before it starts to turn winter. I feel like a chipmunk! — Jackie

4 COMMENTS

  1. zelda,

    Maybe you’d better check at the post office for shipping cost from Cook MN to your address. Those squash are averaging 17 pounds and the shipping would be pretty expensive. But we’re willing.

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