2014- Pumpkin Patch - special pumpkins

Once again its that time of year when I'm busy in the pumpkin patch.  Its so much fun and I find it really rewarding to volunteer there doing the things that I do. 

Here's what it looked like when we unloaded the pumpkins.  We literally get a whole 18wheeler full of pumpkins and it takes a lot of help to unload it.

 They form lines and just pass them down with a sorting going on as they get them.

 This year w had help from a group of girls. 

 Here's what they look like unloaded.

 I thought this was such a pretty sun set I just had to get it with the pumpkins in the forground.

We unloaded the pumpkins on Sept 28, 2014.

Here's the patch during a typical week.


The children came for my discovery center during the week of Oct 13-17.  And here are some of the pumpkins, gourds, ect that I talked about.

 This time I did try to take some photos of the unusual ones so that I could have them as a slide show if I needed them. 

I like to point out the stem verses the vine and how you are not suppose to lift a pumpkin by the stem since they break off easily. 

    With this one I pointed out not all pumpkins are orange in color.

 I was playing around with different color background to get the color that this was easiest to see.  This image did not do justice because this was a bright red one.

 This one had more than one color on it and its good for the kids to see those too.

 I usually try to get some pink pumpkins.  These are specially grown for Breast cancer awareness and when you see the specially marked ones a donation is made to the Susan G. Coleman foundation.

  Since I'm usually showing things to 3-5 year olds I try to make it interesting and show them some of these funny shaped gourds.  We never know if we will get gourds or not so its good to have these backup images.

 I liked this little star gourd.  Plus I liked its yellow color.

 I do talk about the different shapes and how unusual some of them can get to be.
This one was used because of its grey color too.

  But this turbine one is more of a hit.

  I liked this gourd because it looked like a goose to me.  It was a big hit with the kids too.

 

  Sometimes we get pumpkins that are twins but this year this was the closest we got to having twins. 

 I also point out the texture and how these are lumpy.  I love seeing the kids reaction to when I show them this one. 

 This one was used because it was squarish looking.

 

 And this one looked like it was smiling. 

After spending so much time with these special pumpkins I can get attached to them.  I usually end up bring them home where I know they will be well taken care of till Hallooween.

 

 And as usual my cat has to check them out and then keeps watch over them.