Market Friday

Good Morning, Steemians! Today is #MarketFriday initiated by @dswigle (That is me, Denise!)

Today, I went searching for a few harvest pumpkins and gourds, which are currently being picked by the local farmers. There are plenty to go around, but they are being picked little by little - most are still in the fields curing. By curing, of course, I mean they are still in the ripening stage. The pumpkin is harvested when the color is uniform and the rind is hard. The farmers watch the weather for the nighttime lows now, although here in our area, we have been still having summer weather. But, all it takes is one hard frost to kill the vine. Once the vine dies, the fruit will no longer mature. Yes, they are a little dirty from the field, but, I promise you, they will be clean and pretty when they are ready to be sold.

I have to be honest with you. I think these large orange and green gourds are my absolute favorite.

Did you know that gourds are of different colors, shapes, and sizes? Farmers harvest them before frost- after the fruit is mature. As these gourds mature, the stems turn brown and dry up.

When I was a child, the appearance of winter squash epitomized autumn: squash, pumpkins, and gourds. Glorious winter squash! Acorn squash, butternut squash, hubbard squash, spaghetti squash, cheese pumpkin, delicata squash, kabocha squash.

Pumpkins are king at this time of year. They come in an assortment of colors - blue, green, yellow, white multi-colored and red. I am sure that I may be missing some. They can be tiny, oblong, squat, round, shaped like a pear, tall, and some so big they take a small crane to move. There are some that are better for carving, many, better for eating and then some are just pretty and are better for display.

Admittedly, I love them for their seeds, so I pick a nice heavy one... On average, a medium-sized pumkin will usually have about 1 cup of seeds that can be salted then, dried and roasted. Yummy!!!

Thank you for tagging along as I check out the progress of the harvest. I'll go back in a week or so to pick out a few different pumpkins. Maybe carve one or two. I look forward to checking out your #MarketFriday shots. Remember to visit the other ones with that hashtag. Experience a shopping day, all around the globe. Happy shopping!

To make finding the posts easier, would you please leave a link of your post in the comment section? This way, nobody will be forgotten or lost. Thank you! Denise xoxo