photos by Happy Mundane (from left: play it cool with blues or warm it up with oranges and yellows)
What would the month of October be without the beautiful and iconic pumpkin? Whether you plan to harvest your own home-grown pumpkins, or visit your local patch, here are some tips to insure successful pumpkin plucking.
When to Pick
Pumpkins need to be picked before the first hard frost of the year. Depending on the growing conditions, baby pumpkins can vary in size. Baby gray and white pumpkins are ready to pick when there has been no change in size for about a week. When ripe, the fruit stem will start to turn brown. Baby orange pumpkins are ready to pick when the skin gets a slight yellowish sheen.
Full-sized orange pumpkins will turn deep in color when they are ready to be picked. Their skin should be hard enough that it does not crack when you poke it with your fingernail. Don’t pick a pumpkin too early, because it will stop turning orange once it has been cut from the vine.
How to Pick
Pumpkin vines are quite prickly, so make sure to protect your hands with gardening gloves. We recommend the West County Work Gloves (below), which are lightly padded in order to completely shield your palms from prickers. Look, they have adjustable wrist straps, too, so you’re sure to get a good fit.
