No, it’s NOT the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! However, we did officially have a “pumpkin harvest”….barely.

Last year we only planted mini pumpkins. They started out great, but the stink bugs destroyed them literally over night. This year we had higher hopes. Cornfield Pumpkin and Connecticut Field Pumpkin seeds is what we planted this year. As par for the course, we do not remember which we planted where. So, as they grew we did not know what we had. Does anyone else do these kinds of things?!?

Initially, when all of the blossoms came out I had visions of having our home grown pumpkins to carve. And I thought if they are not very big we will use them at our “Monster Mash” party we have for the kids and let them paint and decorate them. Our kids have just about outgrown this, but I have several little nieces and nephews 7 and under. Oh, the festive hopes I had wandering through my mind.

Sunday we “harvested” our pumpkins and it was not impressive. When we went to pick up the first one, the stem just broke right off at the base of the pumpkin. Then we saw it had a couple of small holes in it, bug holes of course! Sigh!

Our Stemless Holey Pumpkin

Then, we picked the second pumpkin. The stem was damp and not strong like I am used to, but at least it came off still attached. On one side it had a little bit of gnawing on the outermost part of the rind, but not all the way through.

The Good Side of Our Gnawed on Pumpkin

Then as we are walking across the yard we realize the first stemless pumpkin with the holes in it is leaking its sad little insides all over my hand. So, it isn’t even salvageable for the kiddos to decorate. Sigh! Jon, sliced it up and threw it in the chicken run. I guess it is not a complete waste when things fail around here because the chickens usually get a treat. They devoured it!

Our pitiful little pumpkins were probably 6 or 7 inches at best. We did notice one new wee one starting to grow out there. It is probably no more than an inch across. The rest of the vines are starting to die out. I do not know if this little one will have time to mature or not. I guess we will see.

We sat the gnawed pumpkin on the corner of the TV table good side facing out of course. It is a cute little bit of décor. Then I made the mistake of touching it this evening and it’s little stem just fell off in my hand! Sigh! I just sat it back on there. Maybe nobody will even notice (well if I didn’t blog about it). What crossed my mind was, “I wonder if I could glue it back on”. Then as Jon is watching me type this he tells me that the stem broke off in Sarah’s hand yesterday and she put it back on. That makes me feel oh so much better now. Sigh!

I certainly hope all of you in the wonderful bloggy world is having better luck with pumpkins than we are. I must confess I have experienced quite a bit of pumpkin envy perusing some of your posts and lovely pictures. Sigh!