Pretend I’m Catholic and you’re a priest. We have just stepped inside that box with a curtain (sorry, I don’t know the official name for it—I’m not Catholic.)

I say: Forgive me I have sinned.

You say: What hast thou done, my child?

I say: (with a sob) I’ve paid too much for pumpkins!

There I said it. My disgrace is complete.

What’s more…I wait all year KNOWING that this is going to happen. Is that premeditation?

Can I be forgiven?

I’m so weak.

It’s fall. FALL…. FINALLY!!! Best time of year…ever!

Love. It. I am addicted to fall!

I love the colors, the football games, the food, bonfires and most of all, the decorations. The whole thing makes me a little nuts.

And my favorite fall decorations are pumpkins.

But have you seen the prices for pumpkins this year? Wowzers.

It costs a small fortune for a large, usually inedible gourd that will end up in our pit the weekend after Thanksgiving. I could only get one BIG one and call it fall, but where’s the fun in that? I NEED LOTS! Ok, I want lots. Same thing.

I think there is a little irony (ok, a lot) that a farm girl has to buy pumpkins. Sad really. If I was so inclined (and by “I” I mean my hub) I could plant enough pumpkins for our whole county. It’s just that with the ginormous time eating, energy sucking building project this summer, it just wasn’t going to happen.

Oh who am I kidding? We have only planted pumpkins one time in the whole 32 years that I have lived here…and that was when the boys were little. But it was an amazing year! Such fun!! There were wheelbarrows of orange pumpkins up against our red barn–I just loved looking out my kitchen window at them. Why did we never do that again?

Here’s why: Pumpkins have to be planted right after July 4th to be ready for early fall. Every year I would be determined not to miss pumpkin planting time. But July 4ths came and went and we were busy with the garden season and putting up hay in the sweltering heat, and the last thing we (and by WE I mean HE) wanted to do was spend more time out in the elements to plant something just for decorations.

The next time I would think about planting pumpkins was the middle of August, which would mean it would be too late to enjoy for the fall, but we’d have plenty for Christmas.

Christmas?

With this being my daughter in law’s first year on the farm we were both looking forward to the thought of pumpkins in the fall. I even bought several kinds of pumpkin seeds to plant and was determined not to let the end of July arrive without them being planted.

But alas…. we failed again. So to the store I have gone in search of the vegetable (or is it a fruit??) I love.

I love pumpkins in all shapes, sizes and colors. Here are a few of the ones I “acquired” just yesterday:

I’m not sure where my emotional attachment to pumpkins came from, but it’s definitely gotten more pronounced over the years. Maybe it’s because I love orange (GO VOLS!) Maybe it’s because it signals that the heat of summer is giving way to cooler temps and heaven knows I’m all over that! Maybe I can blame Pinterest with all the cute photos of fall decorations.

Most likely it’s because fall reminds me of Thanksgiving – my favorite holiday and the thought of all the family gathered together. I can never get enough of those times.

More pumpkins = more fall = more family.

Yes, that must be it.

Guilty.

Blessings,
Stephanie