Keene Pumpkin Festival

[Kat Kanning]

http://www.pumpkinfestival.org/

[Russell Kanning]

I am thinking that maybe we should run a couple of tables south of the official fest area with space for the LSFund and the College guys and the paper. What say you?

[Lloyd Danforth]

I think we need to get a deal on a bunch of pumpkins (Dawn?) and meet early to hollow them out and carve them to spell out stuff like: NHFREE dot com,  KEENE FREE PRESS dot com, and have enough for: FREE ___________ !  (Russell, Lauren etc.)  you know, just in case.
Then get them downtown and get good spots for them.

[Kat Kanning]

That sounds fun.

[Russell Kanning]

Maybe Nick could get us a bunch from his farm.

[Russell Kanning]

Nick said buy them at Walmart. So I guess we don't have to do a special buy. We can just buy for ourselves and then go crazy on that day.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Might be a shortage in your area.  I wonder if Dawn can get us a deal?

[dawn]

I don't have any pumpkin contacts and don't have any in my garden.

[Lloyd Danforth]

All these years living in the country and you haven't made  any Pumpkin connections?

[Pat K]

Psst hey buddy you want some good Pumpkin> I got some Oregon Orange that will nock your socks off.

[KBCraig]

Supply and demand, baby...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NH_PUMPKIN_PROBLEMS_NHOL-?SITE=NHMAL&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Oct 5, 3:10 PM EDT

Heavy rains mean empty pumpkin patches on many Mass. farms

By ADAM GORLICK
Associated Press Writer

MONSON, Mass. (AP) -- Leaves are beginning to change on the sugar maples that tower over the stone walls near Westview Farms, but there's something missing from this New England autumn scene: the pumpkins.

Instead of countless pumpkins covering Westview's pick-your-own pumpkin fields, weeds have taken over the land.

The $20,000 that farmer Dave Bradway spent planting pumpkins in mid-June may as well be rotting in the earth with the seeds ruined by too much rain.

"This time of year, you're supposed to see nothing but orange. Solid orange," Bradway said recently as he surveyed 53 acres of what he called a "total crop failure."
   
Massachusetts farmers and agriculture experts said as much as half of the state's pumpkin crop may have been washed away by heavy rains in May and June.

"Some fields were so wet that the seeds didn't germinate," said Ruth Hazzard, a vegetable specialist at the University of Massachusetts Extension Agriculture and Landscape program. "Some farmers couldn't plant at all because it was too wet."

The National Agricultural Statistics Service, which keeps records of annual crop yields, won't have an official tally for this year's pumpkin production for several months. In 2005, the agency reported that Massachusetts pumpkin patches yielded about 9,300 pounds per acre. Maine's total was 9,100 pounds per acre, while Vermont's 2005 per-acre total was 13,000.

Gerald Tillman, a deputy director for the service, based in Concord, N.H., said Massachusetts farmers seem to have been the worst hit in New England. Other crops, like corn and potatoes, were hurt by the rain, but nowhere near as badly as pumpkins, Tillman said.

"I've heard from farmers saying they didn't have one vine that produced a pumpkin," he said.

New Hampshire Agriculture Commissioner Steve Taylor said even competitive growers of giant pumpkins suffered this year. "We didn't have any of the 13- to 14- hundred pound behemoths that we have seen in recent years, the biggest things we had were 800 to 1,000 pounds each," he said.

George Hamilton, an agricultural resources educator at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, said a series of problems afflicted this year's crop of the state's official fruit. Heavy rain delayed planting, impeded pollination and contributed to rot on blossoms and fruit; powdery mildew stunted pumpkin growth; another ailment, "damping-off" constricted pumpkin stems and contributed to the early death of many plants.

"The crop is all over the board," said Hamilton, who works in Hillsborough County. "There is a crop out there it is not as large as we usually see." Last year, New Hampshire farms produced 15,000 pounds of pumpkins per acre.

But those seeking the perfect pumpkins to carve into jack-o'-lanterns or puree into pie filling shouldn't notice a shortage.

"There are plenty of pumpkins for us to buy from New York, Canada and Ohio and sell on our own farms," said Rich Bonanno, whose pumpkin crop was washed out in Methuen. "The public is really disconnected from the food supply. They see pumpkins at the farm stand and think they're from that farm."

Many farms in western Massachusetts, especially those in the Connecticut River valley where sandy soil allows rain water to easily drain away, were spared.

"We planted about 60 acres, and we got all of it," said Doug McCrary, a South Hadley pumpkin farmer.

But the unlucky farmers, particularly in central and southeastern Massachusetts, fell victim to heavier rainfalls and soil that retains more water. Some farmers will likely rely on crop insurance to recoup some of their losses.

Bradway said a few decent pumpkins made it through the downpours on his land, but not many. He estimates he wound up with eight good acres out of his 53.

"I thought I knew how to grow things until this year," said Bradway, 66, a fifth-generation farmer. "But I guess I was wrong."

[error]

Oops, someone at the AP's thought control editorial department screwed up. This never should have made it into print:

"The public is really disconnected from the food supply. They see pumpkins at the farm stand and think they're from that farm."

Nor should this:

Some farmers will likely rely on crop insurance to recoup some of their losses.

People might start getting Wrong Ideas. 

[Dreepa]

I wonder if the farmer spent all the time attaching the pumpkins I bought to the vine... 

[Kat Kanning]

Pumpkin carving at our house:  88 Sparrow St. Keene at about noon on 21st, before going to the festival.

:pumpkin1: :pumpkin2: :pumpkin3:

[Russell Kanning]

The insanity of Pumpkin fest almost reaches your house.

Pumpkin fest is so big our city can almost not handle it all.