I talked to an older gentleman, who looked official, about some of their specialty pumpkins, asking him how they first obtained the seeds.
He said--mentally backing up in order to launch his forward trajectory--that he had farmed his 400-plus acres, waving his hand in an arc over the fields and towards the hills behind us. About ten years years ago, two of his ten children--sons--were interested in taking over the front forty for a Christmas tree farm in order to keep the farm hands busy all year. Then for a lark they grew a few pumpkins, setting out a wagonful on the highway with a cash box. Both the pumpkins and the cash box were stolen.
So they decided to run a Pumpkin Patch. The boys sent their father and mother out to the Midwest to get a "gander at what was going on there," and to bring back ideas. He walked me over to a heavily ridged fleshy variety, which he said people liked green for decorating, but when fully ripe was a light orange. Patting the thick ridges as he talked--a hollow squashy sound punctuating his words--he said that he and the Mrs. had purchased a pumpkin like this to bring home to his boys, but couldn't figure out how to get it on the plane--it weighed over 30 pounds. So, they took a few pictures and then dropped the pumpkin in the parking lot, scooping the seeds into a bag to bring home.
They grew that one for a few years from the parking lot seed, but with so many varieties in their fields, eventually they start to hybridize, mixing up the characteristics. By that time, the seed catalogues started carrying the more exotic varieties and so they buy their seed now.
This flat-ish pumpkin is known as the Cinderella pumpkin. I bought this one and a grey-green pumpkin for my front hallway.
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