I’ve been spending my days hunting for pumpkins. What started as nice little pumpkin plants in neat straight rows has grown to vines with big green leaves stretching far and wide. It’s hard to walk as every space is either covered in vines or weeds. I watch each step I make so I don’t accidentally crush a perfect pumpkin. Harvest involves a lot of searching under leaves and close examination to see if the various pumpkin varieties are ready to be picked. The process is similar with finding the gourds except they tend to be smaller and easily hidden amongst the weeds. I’m sure from afar I look like a confused chicken moving my head from side to side and quickly pecking at the ground before wandering off in the opposite direction.
Thursday I started to harvest the popcorn but it is a slower process than normal as this field didn’t get weeded, what can I say, I was busy this spring. So the popcorn field is truly a jungle, as I enter I’m not only surrounded by tall cornstalks but six-foot weeds. A couple of steps in and it’s hard to see where you entered. But I just keep moving forward tossing popcorn cobs into my burlap sack. I eventually make it out the other side with a bushel or so of popcorn and lots of scratches.
