pumpkins 2004 first photos

so, here are a couple of pix. as always, click on the picture for a larger (about 250kbyte) version.


the sign says it all. all are welcome, and the patch is a place to wander around, look at pumpkins, and let the kids run their backsides off. i love playing farmer's helper for a month.



well, there he is, the man himself. my father-in-law has been farming his whole life. and now that he's in his 70's, he only puts in 15 hour days, instead of 20 hour days, like he did for the first 50 or so years he worked the farm. this is Farmer Joe, and he is an icon in the Fremont area. we get 4 or 5 generations that come out the pumpkin patch, and they all have memories of Perry Farms pumpkins from their youth. it is just amazing. i've been a gypsy most of my life. i can hardly believe listening to pop and his cronies talking about what happened to such and such one day when they were all in the first grade together, some 66 years ago.



we seperated out some of the bigger pumpkins to make it easier for the customers/us to load. these guys run the gamut from about 30 pounds up to 120 or 130 pounds. i carried one out sunday that had to weigh at least 150 pounds. guess i'm getting a tad older, because i had a little difficulty getting my arms around that darned pumpkin, pick it up, and chuck it onto my shoulder. getting it the 150 yards or so out the the truck was a little easier. i would have loved to be at her house when hubby came home and found out he had a HUGE pumpkin to get out of the back of momma's SUV. hehe.



and i couldn't finish this photo essay without at least one picture of the flower bouquets we make up from statice and straw flowers, grown and harvested right there on the farm. hell, even the flowers are certified as organic produce, with their own organic labels and everything. dried properly, these flowers last until you get tired of looking at them