Sunday, September 21, 2014

Pumpkin country . . . . .


This post will wow you with color! Autumn IS on its way, 
and here's proof from the fields of our beautiful 
North Carolina Piedmont area.

My partial stack of beauties - and Jasmin still had to add 
her picks . . .

I love taking country drives away from the hustle and bustle 
of the city.
On Friday we headed south to Harnett County. Partly sunny 
skies, very warm temperatures, and yet a feeling of Autumn 
was definitely apparent as we got farther away from town.
Tobacco fields were starting to be picked, hay was baled, 
corn was gone, fields already being ploughed under and new 
Winter crops were being planted.

When we arrived at our destination, Johnson's Pumpkins 
were waiting, plentiful and pretty, every color, every 
size and, as always, hard to pick favorites from such 
an array.



Perhaps even more enjoyable than choosing pumpkins, 
was spending time with not only farmer Doug - Bob loves 
'shooting the breeze' with him, and his welcoming wife 
Freda who always gives me great recipe tips for cooking 
the pumpkins - but a lot more of the Johnson farm 
family including their children and grandchildren.
Their grandson Easton above, permitted us to watch his 
efforts at hill rolling, posed for me with the horses in 
the nearby pasture, and talked us into playing ball with 
him in the farmhouse driveway. I assure you this was no 
quick stop to grab pumpkins and drive off, it was a truly 
wonderful afternoon visit with the nicest people imaginable.

 

This was granddaughter Jasmin's first visit with us 
to the farm - I think she'll enjoy going again. 
She took some awesome photos, nice to be young, 
able to crouch and get up again! 
Perhaps she'll share them with you later.




If you're close by I think you'd truly enjoy a visit to 
Johnson's Pumpkins as we do. It has become an annual 
happening we look forward to in September. In fact we 
even stopped by in July just to have a chat - Doug 
introduced us to his cows, and took us on a stroll 
around his pond, from there we could see the fields 
where Freda had planted her pumpkin seeds. We know
the hard work involved to grow from seed to harvest
on a family farm is huge, so much of a successful 
harvest depends on the weather. This was an usually 
wet Summer here in this area of North Carolina so
there were problems - quite honestly though I still 
think the Johnsons pumpkins are magnificent as always. 
I also purchased baking pumpkins and butternut 
squash, more on those in another post.




11 comments:

  1. Hi dear! I'm glad you had a lovely day driving in the country side..... really miss the country drives Ryan and I used to take around the area. Wow! What a great variety of pumpkins! Amazing! Wishing you a lovely week ahead, love ~ Vanessa

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  2. Oh, I would adore visiting a place like that, and I would empty my wallet out in a hurry! Love your selections!

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  3. It looks like a wonderful place to spend a fall day Mary!

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  4. Ahhh... what lovely colors and a lovely day for you. Here it is apple season and I went to the orchard to pick a peck of sweet honey crisps. Unfortunately it was raining so I didn't get much in the way of pictures.

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  5. I am always so delighted when this season rolls around. And thank you for all these delicious photos. What a special place (and people) you have found for this autumn tradition. The sight of all those pumpkins makes me smile. I do love pumpkins! My favorite photo is the one with the rows of pumpkins in the foreground and the horses in the distance. There is something so satisfying (to me anyway) of green and orange together. Very delightful.

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  6. This looks like a lot of fun, Mary. Your photos are beautiful and so colourful. A wonderful variety of pumpkins to choose from. Happy Fall to you! Pam xx

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  7. Your pictures are fantastic and those pumpkins are gorgeous. Such wonderful color!!!!

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  8. What a perfectly, wonderful, delightful day!!!!
    The pumpkins are indeed lovely, but more than that
    is sharing time with friends and Jasmin. The color
    is magnificent. Soon I think I must get pumpkins, but
    Jim says to wait until October. Well October is just
    around the corner.

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  9. Great photos - it all looks and sounds like such fun. The pumpkin patches are beginning to open here also. The pumpkins have been ripe and orange for several weeks now already, which is unusual for us. Usually we are well into October and hoping the pumpkins get ripe, but this year has been so much warmer and sunnier and everything ripened early. The school buses will begin their treks to the pumpkin patches soon - what fun to visit on a day when there are children everywhere having a grand time.

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  10. That's some display of pumpkins! We only really see them around Halloween in the UK. Looks like you're having a great autumn over there; it's been beautiful here too.

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