Dear Pumpkin Fairy...

[ju_bear]

Dear Miss Pumpkin Fairy,

It has been revealed to us folks that this year has been sucky for pumpkin crops all over the country. Apparently they are not ripening well. I guess with the sodding wet summer, we did not get enough sun and warmth for our crops which ended up failing and now with the rather dry autumn, the pumpkins seem to be on strike.

Comments

[casaubon]

How about using a melon?

Or a cucumber, if you fancy a challenge.

[ju_bear]

melon might work but I think the white bits might ooze water rather quickly after carving. Maybe carve on the day itself.

Cucumber is either good for eating or for facial, not for carving scary face with a candle in it... :P

Cucumber!

[casaubon]

You realize of course that that's a challenge!

Re: Cucumber!

[ju_bear]

I can carve it into a pretty fan and maybe a palm tree, but a scary face?
Okay, I shall have a go and tell Paul to yell at you if he has to eat alot of cucumber raita...

[nigelh]

You could always go back to using turnips, like we used to do when I were a lad and we only ever saw pumpkins in Charlie Brown cartoons ...

[gwengothelf]

Yep - turnip or swede here always.

[ju_bear]

are you afraid of the pumpkin? :)

[gwengothelf]

No, was just not a common sight in the greengrocer when I was a kid.

[longhairedhippy]

Pumpkins tend to get turned into soup rather than lanterns round our house, but yes, it's a shame they're not doing well this year...

Our butternut squashes have only now decided to flower properly. They are way behind schedule this year :(

[ju_bear]

Yes, the only crop that is doing well is the apple, and with the dry autumn, the apples this year will make excellent cider and wine.

You might as well eat the flowers to be honest, it won't really fruit to a good squash. Edy's squash plants have a couple of fruit but they are so small like the size of 50p and they were already turning yellow and sickly. :(

Stuff the flowers with flavoured rice and cream cheese or search on internet for stuffed squash flowers. They are a delicacy, like courgette flowers. :)

It has been just crap for growing anything to be honest. My small rosemary Blue Forta plant is dead I think due to the dry weather. I have the ordinary huge rosemary bush but the Blue Forta was special... :(

[tallbint]

Both our pumkin plants flowered then just seemed to stop growing.

[ju_bear]

:(

It is so annoying when plants fail! I think it needs warm summer and a wet autumn to grow and swell well.

Did you have a good time on Sat? :)

[tallbint]

Really lovely thanks, wish you'd made it but we can catch up Friday, day off willing!

Bizarrely I am just getting the tomatoes off the plants from Bryony- made a soup out of them just today when they should have finished July time. All the ones I got from my mum got blight though, and rotted as they grew. Too much rain makes for very expensive veggies :(

[ju_bear]

Yeah I agree! The veg are expensive this year... :/ This is when imported veg that has gotten so much criticism for being mass produced and not environmentally friendly due to air miles comes into handy when local crops fail. Ppl still need to eat... :(

I got some mini tomatoes, not much though from 2 of my plants. :(

Have you checked day off for this Fri? :D *excited*

[soul_rider]

And this is why I bought a ceramic carved pumpkin a couple of years ago! It lives in the kitchen most of the time :-)

We used to just carve swedes (or turnips, depending where in the UK you're from) - I'd never seen a carved pumpkin till I was 16!