But that mysterious "Blue #2" pumpkin holds yet more mysteries. When it first set fruit (the first of all three varieties to do so), it was yellow. I thought, perhaps in the same way a tomato starts green and then turns color as it ripens - the pumpkin will turn blue when it's ready to be picked. So we watched as it grew bigger and bigger and bigger. Not just the fruit, but the whole plant! A vast majority of the garden this year that took over the lawn, covered the sidewalk, branched toward the street, and eventually ended up wrapping back through the yard under the tree and back toward the house again... was this "Blue #2" pumpkin (though some was acorn squash too). Every few feet it had flowers, and in total by the end of September when we pulled up the vines due to freezing temperatures, we got six pumpkins from the vines throughout the yard, and had to throw out at least half a dozen more that were just too small to save. Of the six, one set to rotting right away, but we still have five left. They continued to ripen in the house after they were picked, and now 4 of the 5 look like this one below. They are a deep orange color with yellow/orange splotches and randomly placed warty bits. They're short and wide, with a recessed stem (they'd catch rain water and I was worried they'd rot off if I didn't dry them or tip them out in the garden). They're ribbed, and most interestingly - they look waxed. I've never seen a pumpkin like this before. I've looked online and I can find winter squash varieties that are of similar color, or similar shape (but never both), but I have yet to find any kind that has this waxy appearance. I'm sure it's got to be some kind of natural cross from the blue pumpkin the seeds came from and some other variety she happened to grow that year. So I sent her some photos and a description of the plant and pumpkins, again thanking her for a wonderful gardening experience, and the beautiful produce. I'm told that blue pumpkins are quite tasty, so I'm excited to try cooking one of these down to see if it can be eaten straight out of the skin, or if it would make a good pie filling. I'm hoping to save them for Thanksgiving, but I'm going to end up playing with one before that so I know if this is going to make a mashed-potato style dish or a dessert. I'll definitely be saving seeds, but because we grew so many other varieties this year (acorn squash, delicata squash, spaghetti squash, CT Field pumpkin, Baby Pam pie pumpkin, zucchini, etc.) I doubt that what we grow next time will be the same as what we got this time. They're truly beautiful pumpkins. At first when they were still growing (and yellow turning orange) I admit I was a little disappointed that we weren't getting blue pumpkins... but seeing them now, I'm so glad we got something so much more interesting!
It was a pretty nice day today. Not too terribly cold yet, and plentiful sunshine. Little #5 and I spent almost two hours playing outside today while #1 and #2 were inside busy with their schoolwork. We played on the swing and the slide and he rode around on his toy car thing. I checked my shade garden; unbelievably the kale and collards are still growing, though the carrots never did make roots, and I only found two onions showing greens - I'll work on harvesting them later. Then we made the rounds to the flower patch in the back corner of the yard. Last year (2014) I planted a bunch of wildflower seeds meant to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. We got a tall patch of an assortment of flowers. I fully expected them to come back this year, but the lonely flower garden only yielded some black eyed Susan flowers this year. Of course it still has tulips and irises, strawberries, and now raspberries as well. Today we discovered that the black eyed Susan plants had dried up and were ready for seed harvesting. I looked up some videos, and #5 and I got a pair of scissors and a sandwich container. I cut the heads off of the stems into the plastic container, then closed it up and had #5 shake it. It seems to be the best way to get the seeds out of the heads without impaling fingers on all those sharp bits of stem! Now I'm wondering how to get the chaff separate from the seeds. Anyway, we should have plenty of seeds to take to wherever we end up moving to. As always, we also left a few seed heads on the plant and sprinkled some of the seeds throughout the garden to make sure they come back there next year too. I sent a message on Facebook to a lady I met last year at a seed swap who had given me some seeds. I wanted to let her know how her seeds had made my garden what it was this year. She gave me a packet simply labeled in permanent marker "Blue #2" - pumpkin seeds. This year we decided to plant one pie pumpkin (Baby Pam Pie Pumpkin) - so we could make pie. One larger variety (Connecticut Field Pumpkin) to produce carving pumpkins for Halloween, and one decorative oddball variety (we chose Blue #2). The pie and carving pumpkin plants each produced just one pumpkin each. The pie pumpkin actually went bad on the shelf before I got around to using it - so much for being a winter squash good for storage. The Connecticut Field pumpkin missed Halloween when my mom picked up seven over-ripe pumpkins from a local farmer - they needed to be carved as they were already going bad. We still have our big CT Field pumpkin, waiting to be cut up and cooked. But that mysterious "Blue #2" pumpkin holds yet more mysteries. When it first set fruit (the first of all three varieties to do so), it was yellow. I thought, perhaps in the same way a tomato starts green and then turns color as it ripens - the pumpkin will turn blue when it's ready to be picked. So we watched as it grew bigger and bigger and bigger. Not just the fruit, but the whole plant! A vast majority of the garden this year that took over the lawn, covered the sidewalk, branched toward the street, and eventually ended up wrapping back through the yard under the tree and back toward the house again... was this "Blue #2" pumpkin (though some was acorn squash too). Every few feet it had flowers, and in total by the end of September when we pulled up the vines due to freezing temperatures, we got six pumpkins from the vines throughout the yard, and had to throw out at least half a dozen more that were just too small to save. Of the six, one set to rotting right away, but we still have five left. They continued to ripen in the house after they were picked, and now 4 of the 5 look like this one below. They are a deep orange color with yellow/orange splotches and randomly placed warty bits. They're short and wide, with a recessed stem (they'd catch rain water and I was worried they'd rot off if I didn't dry them or tip them out in the garden). They're ribbed, and most interestingly - they look waxed. I've never seen a pumpkin like this before. I've looked online and I can find winter squash varieties that are of similar color, or similar shape (but never both), but I have yet to find any kind that has this waxy appearance. I'm sure it's got to be some kind of natural cross from the blue pumpkin the seeds came from and some other variety she happened to grow that year. So I sent her some photos and a description of the plant and pumpkins, again thanking her for a wonderful gardening experience, and the beautiful produce. I'm told that blue pumpkins are quite tasty, so I'm excited to try cooking one of these down to see if it can be eaten straight out of the skin, or if it would make a good pie filling. I'm hoping to save them for Thanksgiving, but I'm going to end up playing with one before that so I know if this is going to make a mashed-potato style dish or a dessert. I'll definitely be saving seeds, but because we grew so many other varieties this year (acorn squash, delicata squash, spaghetti squash, CT Field pumpkin, Baby Pam pie pumpkin, zucchini, etc.) I doubt that what we grow next time will be the same as what we got this time. They're truly beautiful pumpkins. At first when they were still growing (and yellow turning orange) I admit I was a little disappointed that we weren't getting blue pumpkins... but seeing them now, I'm so glad we got something so much more interesting! The weekend before last, while out on a walk, I happened upon some wild milkweed pods. I'd seen them in the same place last year too, but thanks to Mother Nature and I'm sure more than just myself playing with tossing seeds - they now grow in profusion in that area. I paused long enough to collect a few pods, breaking open others to let the seeds float along to assure more next year, and leaving many still on the plants. I want to be able to have milkweed wherever we move to. I never seem to notice these plants when they're flowering, so I have no idea what color the flowers are. I just see the pods and know that they're good for butterflies. On another walk in that area, this time with #3 and #5, we found a second patch of milkweed plants, and I let #3 pick some more pods. Again, we are always careful to assure that we take only a few and that most of the seeds are left for natural spreading to be enjoyed next year and the years to come. She has them set aside to release at my parents' house so they can feed the butterflies as well.
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