Salmon Tolman Fam: Munchkins & Pumpkins

This was our 5th year running the "Lil Munchkins' Patch of Pumpkins". It's a great family project, and an excellent way to teach our boys the value of work and the concept of earning and saving money.

We planted a variety of pumpkins again this year, and grew some new kinds as well. We grew Connecticut Field and Giant Magic, and the blue carriage kind again. We planted a new kind of white: they were taller and bell-shaped instead of short and round. We had a few seeds leftover of the Spotted kind from last year, so we planted those, too. We grew lots of mini white and mini orange, as well as some orange ones that were very small and perfectly round called Wee-be-Littles. We planted that kind up in Frank's garden, and they grew very well there! We also tried growing goblin egg gourds, but only 4 plants grew of the 3 rows that we planted at Frank's.

The plants sprouted later than normal, and we were worried that after two weeks of planting in May, we still didn't see any plant life. Thankfully, they began growing, and the plants really took off in August. In September, we began cutting the pumpkins from the plants and putting them in storage. We did it in 6 increments this year, and I liked cutting the pumpkins from the vines in stages rather than all it once; it seemed more manageable and less stressful that way.

We started with all the minis one day, then we moved onto the white, blue, and spotted one day. Next up was the main area of the patch (with all the bigger orange ones) which we split into 3 sections and worked on a section a day. Then we removed all the ones from Frank's garden that we grew there. We stored them in 3 locations: our shed, the calving shed, and Edward's shop. We were really hoping to build a garage this summer that we planned on using for pumpkin storage in September & October, but between my surgeries and Josh's truck's transmission breaking, the money ran out for the garage plans. Since the pumpkins were all stored in different locations, we had a different plan this year than we have in years past: only put out the pumpkins in the field that we need each day, instead of having ALL the pumpkins out in the field every day. This really helped save time at the end of each sale day, since we always load the pumpkins all up and keep them together overnight.

We were open on Fridays and Saturdays in October, beginning on the 11th. There was a big list of things that needed to be done before we could open, and since Josh & I had been out of town the previous weekend and gone until Tuesday night, we had a lot of work to do on Wednesday & Thursday evening getting everything prepared for the opening day, as well as on Friday morning. I hung the pumpkin banner along the driveway fence, put the pumpkin-face orange tarp on the hay-bale parked next to the road, Josh put the business sign next to the road, I brought down the straw-bales and decorations for the photo area, set up the Cinderella carriage photo backdrop and the Jack-o-Lantern corn bag toss. The boys helped me set up the sales area with the tent covering and the tables. I hung up all the fake spiders in the hay-bale maze, and weeded spots for a better walkway, and Edward helped make the entrance for the maze he'd created. We created a new area this year called the pumpkin cemetery for all the dead pumpkins to go. I made sales signs, painted a maze sign, printed up information signs. I spray painted parking lines and hung up the directional parking signs, and screwed in signs along different roads leading from the highway to the patch.

the entrance to the hay bale maze

our new addition to the patch this year: the pumpkin cemetery

On Friday morning, the boys starting bringing the pumpkins out of different storage spots and placing them in the field, and I got to work baking pumpkin pies, pumpkin bars, and my pumpkin nut fudge to sell at the concessions stand in the patch. Josh and Ammon left to go to Ammon's cross country meet, and I got everything done in time for when the patch opened at noon. I was alone in charge all day, and Jonah and Micah were awesome helpers. It was excellent weather both days of our opening weekend, and we had a lot of customers! It wasn't super busy, because of Homecoming weekend, but we had more business time than down time!

The twins' friend Ryder came to visit and I took a few photos of them together on the straw bales during a slow time.

Then they wanted the animals to be in the picture, too!

They asked to see the picture on my camera, and I tried to show them, but the camera broke and wouldn't allow it. The previous weekend when we were at Ammon's cross country meet, I was running around trying to take photos of Ammon in the race. I forgot to turn the camera off one time as I was running, and the lens got jammed. The camera still worked, but the lens couldn't focus right. The pictures I took on the day our pumpkin patch opened were the last photos the camera would ever take! On Saturday the 12th, I had the boys all wear orange so that customers would recognize them as employees who could assist them. They looked so cute, so I had them sit on the straw bales again, and this time I took the photo using my cell phone, which is why the quality isn't as good:

The weather was beautiful again on our 2nd day, and we were steady busy all day on Saturday. With Josh and Ammon around for part of the day (when they weren't mowing), it was a big help to us! Ammon didn't do the garden slingshot this year like he did last year--because we knew he'd be gone half of the sale days, and there wasn't a location to place it by the concessions stand where I could conveniently be in charge of both, so we made a decision not to do it. So when Ammon was around, he also helped the twins by carrying pumpkins in wheelbarrows to customers' cars for them.

The new system of only putting out what pumpkins we needed each day was awesome! During slow times, the boys would take wheelbarrows to the shed to get pumpkins to restock the patch. It kept the boys busy when we were slow, and it kept the pumpkins in better shape not being stored in the field on pallets, and it saved time at the beginning and end of each sale day. At the end of the 2nd day, we backed up the cargo trailer into the patch and loaded up all the pumpkins into it to store them until the next weekend.

During the week, I asked Kathy if I could borrow her camera until I was able to go out of town and get a new one, and she gladly consented. She gave her extra one to me, and I was happier than a kid on Christmas morning. I was so glad to have a camera again!

The next Friday was another gorgeous day, and we again stayed busy throughout the day. We really lucked out with the weather this year! Even when we didn't have customers, just sitting in the pumpkin patch was so relaxing for me. I enjoyed looking at the mountains, and the fall colors, and the contrast of the pumpkins in the field.

When we got out all the remaining pumpkins we had on Saturday, we started to get a little worried. We'd sold a lot of our pumpkins already, and we didn't have a lot of really large ones left. We knew that we might not have enough to stay open another weekend, but it would depend on how sales went that day. Saturday was so warm and sunny all day, and business was good all afternoon. We stayed busy, and it didn't slow down until about 4:00. I took that opportunity to take some photos (now that I had a camera again!).

Kanyon went on a walk through the hay bale maze with me! Lots of kids really enjoy going through the maze, and do it repeatedly when they come. Edward does a good job creating it and making it different each year.

And he showed me this little "tunnel" underneath the mommy spider's web at the dead-end of the maze. He'd shown lots of little kids it, but I had no idea was he was referring to until then.

He asked dad to pull him around the patch in the wagon. The background was so picturesque!

Then it was his turn to pull Ammon in the Cinderella carriage!!! This photo cracks me up!

My little munchkins worked so hard planting and weeding and picking the pumpkins, as well as assisting customers on sale days. I was so proud of all their hard work this year in the pumpkin patch! Jonah and Micah did a majority of the work, but Ammon and Kanyon helped out more this year, too.

None of it would be possible without this man, who rototills and orders the seeds and waters the area. It is truly a family project, and we all work together on it. It makes us more united to have a common goal that we work towards achieving each year.

At the close of Saturday's business, we made an executive decision to not be open the next weekend, the final weekend before Halloween. We didn't have any of the larger pumpkins left, only lots of smaller ones, and it didn't merit staying open two more days. This was the first year that we'd ever sold out of pumpkins in just 4 days. We made about the same money as last year, but did it in 4 days instead of 6. We sold some of the remaining pumpkins to Josh's aunt & uncle who own a store in Stanley. Then we donated some to the elementary school for their carnival, some to the church for decorations at two ward parties, a big one to the Sacajawea Center for their fall harvest, and the rest to the Assisted Living Center. I took a few that I will make more pumpkin puree with, in order to make more baked pumpkin goods for next year's patch. I sold out of all my pumpkin goodies every single day!

Per tradition, here's a few of our favorite funky pumpkins this year: