Pekin Cheeckin
I spotted something orange under one of the pumpkin plants on the south field plateau. Getting closer I realized it was not a pumpkin, no surprise given how early it is in the season. Instead it was a young pullet chicken hoping I thought she was a pumpkin. Sorry Cinderella!
Outdoors: 79°F/64°F Partially Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 72°F/65°F
Daily Spark: A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing. -Emo Philips
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
What kinds of squash do you plant?? SUmmer squashes? WInter squashes? Old heirloom varieties? THe newer virus-resistant types?? BUsh? trailing? The selection of squash is very broad– often not sure where to start–too many choices.
Lots of kinds. Pumpkin, Hubbard, acorn, butternut, yellow crook, zucchini, etc. Mostly trailing, some bush. I save a lot of seed in the hopes that the seeds from the plants that did well in past years will do well in the future.
That makes lots of sense.
Do you save any of the winter squash for feeding long after the snows have arrived, or is all this food self service in the fall?
Some of what we grow is eaten after snows, but then we get snows early…
Ha ha, daily spark, good one!! Walter, do the pigs eat the pumpkins, especially the big ones, by themselves or do you have break them open with an ax or something?
Do you send the pig is when the leaves are still green or harvest the pumpkins first and then let the pigs have the leaves/plants.
Then give them the pumkins later?
As a general rule the pigs open the pumpkins themselves. Although, sometimes we have a bit of pumpkin tossing fun. Generally the plants have gone to frost before the pigs get the pumpkins but they will eat the plants and leaves late in the fall. The pumpkins, leaves and stems are not their preferred food so when a pumpkin is growing out in the field where the pigs are it may get ignored and grazed around – just don’t count on it. Thus why we fence off the winter paddocks during the summer growing season.