This afternoon The Girl and I harvested a few pumpkins. We thought about harvesting them all {even if they still had green on them} but decided against it. But the temperatures are starting to drop, and rain is in the forecast for this weekend, so I’m thinking with all the chilly mornings we’ve been having, we need to get it together and harvest these puppies before it’s too late.
Since this is my first year growing so many pumpkins, I’d like to know when YOU think the perfect time to call it quits is. When the night time temps reach 40 degrees? 45 degrees? What about if it is raining constantly {rain is in the forecast for this weekend}?
I figure it will take The Girl and I about 2 hours to harvest the rest of the pumpkins, pull up the vines and rake the dirt so it’s nice a pretty again. I wonder if this weekend is too early to do this. What do you think?
After all, I want to be able to preserve as many pumpkins as I can, not let them rot on the vine.
Also, I wonder what my hottie of a UPS man Gustav will say to me the next time he stops by. Maybe he’ll want to barter with me. I mean it’s not every day you drive by someones house, and they have a pumpkin patch in their front yard. Right?
Peace Out Girl Scouts, have a great night, I’m off to get big bowl of ice cream.
♥ Mavis
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
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kelly t says
I picked mine after the frost
Julie A, says
Well when you go to pick our own pumpkin in the fields around here they are good up until Halloween. Ours are still on the vine at our patch. I would call one of them and ask. I am in Vancouver, WA and I know you are a little colder where you are. We have 2 family farms here and I am sure they would answer y0ur questions. One of the farms (Joe’s Place) is right in the middle of very high maintenance suburbia. (the other is Bi-Zi (busy) Farms)
Mavis says
Ha! That totally makes sense. Why didn’t I think about that?
Heather says
If you want them to keep in your garage all winter long, don’t let them get frost on them. If you want them for decoration or for use in October/Early November, you are good to leave them as long as you like. If the vines are dead, I’d go ahead and harvest.
Mavis says
Thanks Heather! 🙂
Susan says
Thanks for getting your posts back i to my emails…I really missed them and I’m glad the problem got solved.
Sara Jane says
After the farmer needed to take the beans off and I had to pull my pumpkins I took some of the vine with them and they totally turned orange. I finished harvesting the rest after the first frost. They look amazing.
Heidi says
A local farmer grows pumpkins on three of our 7+ acres here in the Portland Oregon area. He harvested some last week and then the rest this week. If the vines are dying then I’d get a pick n’
sara says
polenta is wonderful! it is best made from scratch, but when using the log type it is best to cut them into 1 inch rounds and pan fry them, at the same time cook up some of that kale in tomato sauce. pour this on the polenta rounds and there you go! many people also will eat it with a fried egg and greens. that is on my list for this winter. honestly though, making it on the stove is sooo much better. enjoy!
i spent the last two days in the garden getting up all the dead materials and pruning stuff before the rains come to us down in Portland. i still need to finish planting my winter veggies, but it will happen soon.