Darth Vader Pumpkin

This evening we finally carved out some time to work on John's pumpkin - carved out time, get it? The hardest part of doing his pumpkin was decided what to do. He went from Spiderman and Batman to Bumblebee (a transformer) before finally settling in on Darth Vader. Fortunately for him, Becca got me some cool new carving tools from the craft store. They're intended use is clay, but they work well on the overgrown squash too.

From Darth Vader Pumpkin

And with the lights out...

From Darth Vader Pumpkin

Carving pumpkins directly, using the depth of flesh to manage light is a whole new experience for me. In many ways, its actually easier than typical carving, in that, typically for a reasonably complex pumpkin design you have to think in the "negative" to figure out what an "outline" going to look like in the end. By carving a full design directly in the pumpkin and using flesh-depth to manage the light, you can know what it's going to look like at all times by carving with a light in it and a dimly lit room. Darth was my first experience with this style of carving, motivated mostly by a Food Network Challenge. I'm already thinking about what we can do for next year's squash.

Princess Pumpkin

Today we carved one of our pumpkins. John and I mainly. Grace saw the yukiness of the inside and was inclined to stay away - even though this particular orange squash was to be hers. In any case, John and I dutifully operated on it carefully cleaning its insides...

From Princess Pumpkin

There's something really fun about squeezing that goopy mess between your fingers...

From Princess Pumpkin

And after an hour or so with knives, files, drill bits, and a drywall saw, we end up with our princess pumpkin.

From Princess Pumpkin

Pumpkin Pickin

There's an orchard to our west having fresh apples and a genuine pumpkin patch so the kids and I ventured there yesterday. After a couple years searching for our pumpkin at a local farm stand where loads of gorgeous pumpkins lay piled up on hay bales, I decided this year we should have the real experience. It's not that the pumpkin selection at the farm stand aren't great - they are, in fact, near perfect. There's something about romping in the real pumpkin patch in search of the perfect plump squash though. The pumpkin patch is just down the road from the orchard run by the same farmers. Upon arriving, John selected a solid Radio Flyer to accompany us on our venture.

From Pumpkin Patch Pickin 2008

Grace served the Pumpkin Pickin team as the Chief Pumpkin Inspector, carefully inspecting each stem for the proper curvature.

From Pumpkin Patch Pickin 2008

And, of course, you never know what villains might lurk in the local pumpkin patch so John prepared for the worst by practicing his super hero stance - maintaining the tightest grip on the Flyer all the while.

From Pumpkin Patch Pickin 2008

Occasionally, you just need to get down and check out the pumpkin vines themselves.

From Pumpkin Patch Pickin 2008

So many pumpkins, which one should we choose?

From Pumpkin Patch Pickin 2008

Pumpkin selected... and tired...

From Pumpkin Patch Pickin 2008

... so we head next door to the apple orchard, where the apples were freshly picked and the caramel was warm...

From Pumpkin Patch Pickin 2008

And of course they were yummy...

From Pumpkin Patch Pickin 2008