Every year I buy a pumpkin to carve for Halloween from a local farmer who has a produce stand a few miles from my house. This year he had a small crop of pumpkins for sale, and they seemed to be a lot higher this year than last. I asked him about that and he said that the drought we had this summer really took a toll on his pumpkin crop. Evidently, the crop was only about one quarter of what it was last year, because growing big pumpkins requires a lot of water and we just did not have enough rain to make a good crop.
With that in mind, I had to decide if I wanted to be extravagant and buy a big one from the few, expensive big ones that he had, or settle for a smaller one that fit my budget. It also occurred to me that I could just not buy my pumpkin from him this year and go to WalMart to buy one for about ten bucks. But I really don’t want to give my money to WalMart when I have a good local option, and I believe in supporting the local businesses and farmers as much as possible. I decided to buy a smaller pumpkin and stick to my budget, and hope that next year’s crop is bigger and better for everyone.
I’m going to carve something like the design on this photo. I like the idea of a more intricate design than just a grinning face. I’m not sure how to make this work on a smaller pumpkin, but I guess I will figure it out tonight when I carve the pumpkin and put it out on my front porch.