Pumpkin Hunting 2009
by Chris on Oct.10, 2009, under Halloween, Main Page
This weekend was the Great Pumpkin Snatch of ’09! We went with the Janes and their neighbors out by Champoeg park to a field owned by the same people we have been getting our pumpkins from for 10-12 years now, and what a day for it! About 70 degrees and bright and sunny, this was without a doubt one of the best pumpkin hunting trips we have ever taken.
We finished up with about 1/2 ton of pumpkins, which is a ridiculous amount but is in fact about half of what we hauled out of there last year.
The hunting itself took only about and hour, and then it was back down to the little shack to pick up some produce while I took pictures of a bicycle event that was taking place, headquartered across the road at Champoeg park. I really liked the fall colors, the quiet country road and the bicyclers.
After the hunting we dropped pumpkins at our place and headed up to Vancouver where the Janes’ had prepared a wonderful soup lunch for everyone. After soup Jane, Shannon, myself and Veronica took a drive to another small in farm in Vancouver so Jane could take a look at some of their giant pumpkins – our normal vendor does not grow the really, really big guys. In the end she settled on a 145 pound behemoth! I will say that I was able to lift the damn thing on my own, but not very far! I got it into the wheelbarrow and that was about all I was good for.
None of us had planned on her getting a pumpkin that large, including Jane, and as such she hadn’t brought enough money. I scrounged around in my pockets and wallet came up with two bucks, but that still left us $3 dollars short. The farmer was really nice and said that there was no way he was going to wrestle that monster back into the field for $3 lousy dollars, so he sold it to us for what we had and helped me load the beast into the back of the truck – something I was very grateful of. Fortunately we were able to the dog ramp to roll the gargantuan gourd down into the wheelbarrow at Jane’s house.
I’m not entirely sure how she is going to deal with the thing when it comes to carving time. I suggested that she gut the sucker right there in the wheelbarrow, which should eliminate at least 50-60 pounds and make it a whole lot more manageable.
Sadly enough, I left my camera at home when we dropped off our pumpkins so I wasn’t able to get a picture of it, but I’m sure I’ll get another chance before the big night arrives, and I’ll be sure to put it on here so you can see it.
