Getting Stitched on the Farm

Happy Pumpkin Day to All

For the past four weeks, every day around here has been pumpkin day. Since the sunflowers have been done, we have been concentrating on lifting pumpkins from the field, transferring them to a cart, rolling the cart up the farm lane and setting them up for sale on our wobbly haywagon. It sure is a good work-out and is better to be outside doing something constructive rather than a morning walk or an exercise class at the local gym.

Yesterday, The Farmer transported the hay wagon back up the hill and our farming in Greenfield is over for the season. The birds, squirrels, mice, moles, voles, deer and coyotes still have plenty to harvest and they will all be well fed.

We had a modicum of success with the pumpkins this year. Unfortunately, The Farmer took charge of purchasing the seeds at the local “Farmer’s Exchange” and he’s not too good at reading the sides of the packages. He put in lots of hills of something called Jack Be Little thinking they were New England Pie Pumpkins. Well they weren’t – they are basically ornamental miniature gourds that look like pumpkins. We literally had thousands and thousands of them. They make nice table decorations (that's them in the bowl in the photo above) and our customers seemed to like them. But to say we had a few left is an understatement. I gave all the kids at school one each and I could have probably given every child in the school district one and still had lots left.

He did also put in a couple of true pie pumpkins which did really well. I baked a few last week and the flesh was nice and dense and there wasn't a lot of water soaking out all over the place. I made this pumpkin bread recipe via Alicia's blog, and it is totally tasty. I added a cup of walnuts, a cup of raisins and 2 tablespoons cinnamon though.

The jack o’lantern pumpkins didn’t fare as well. Lots of the seeds and fruit rotted in the field which was a disappointment. But then that’s farming…..

Here’s a pretty cabled sweater I designed a few years ago for Vogue Knitting (Winter 2003) out of Julia in the French Pumpkin color. My friend Linda Pratt always refers to it as the “Pumpkin Sweater” so it is a fitting inclusion today on this Hallow’s Eve post. It features a cable I designed and would look equally nice in any of the other Julia colors.