The Great Pumpkin Sale

I am so thankful for computers and laser color printers. You see, my artistic ability is limited to stick figures and painting houses... whole houses, not pictures of them. I think the sign turned out pretty. I glued it on a 22 x 28 inch foam board and laminated it with clear contact paper to protect it from the elements. "Pumpkin Sale... Sundays 1 - 4". My resourceful husband got some 20 foot rebar and cut it into ten foot sections and bent it into a frame. He then drilled holes in the sign and attached it to the bar with zip ties. It worked well. Looks very professional!

The question was whether people would come to the sale or not. It's not like we did a ton of advertising. We put three signs up and placed the sale on the local free classifieds for our area.

The day turned out to be a lovely day. It was about 65 degrees with patchy clouds and a breeze. We had washed a trailer load of pumpkins and gourds the afternoon before the first sale. And we set up my Farmer's Market canopy and tables. To the pumpkin sale we added berries, squash, gourds and tomatoes and peppers. We also had a table of our Beacon Woods Honey (just harvested!).

We had many people stop. Most of them were neighbors that we hadn't met yet. That was special. Most of them said that they had seen us working all summer and were curious to see what was going on. And most of them purchased at least 2 pumpkins. One nice gentleman and and his beautiful wife also bought one of my biggest jars (1/2 gallon) of honey.

We spoke of our dreams of the farm, of planting the orchard in the spring, of picking blueberries in July and of maybe setting up a farm stand once a week next summer. Most of our new friends were very enthusiastic about the whole idea. "This will be so good for the neighborhood." was a comment often mentioned.

We have about 500 pumpkins left. Yikes! Good thing I'm still going to the Farmer's Market on Saturdays. Hopefully, over the next three weeks we can sell them. But I must admit I'm a little discouraged. We maybe had about 15 cars stop. I was hoping for more like 50 (you know me... always dreaming!). But next week might be better. We asked many of the nice folks who stopped to spread the word and they said they would. But I am also a little discouraged because the local Walmart and local food stores are selling pumpkins either at the same price or slightly cheaper. Do we reduce our price? I believe it is a fair one. It is awful hard to compete with those megastores. But we have more variety... and are certainly more friendly! ☺ And are chemical free.

Seas of orange with brown leaves rustling. Windy breezes with gusts of chill. Canadian honkers soaring in V - shapes. Daylight shortening. Flowers fading. And pumpkins harvested. All sure signs that autumn is here with the rest and quiet of winter to quickly follow. I am thankful for the pumpkins and the signs of autumn. I am looking forward to resting.

Today's Journey Joy: pumpkins at the market