It might be too soon for most people to think about pumpkins, but it’s not too soon for the man who grows the gourds for the Chadds Ford Historical Society’s Great Pumpkin Carve.
H.G. Haskell is already on the job. Haskell, owner of Hill Girt Farm in Pennsbury Township, just finished planting seeds for this year’s crop dedicated to the joys of carving Jack O’ lanterns and other fanciful forms of pumpkin dismemberment.
Haskell grows two varieties of pumpkins, Atlantic Giant and Prize Winner. Both are easy to grow, he said, but the Prize Winner pumpkin is smaller and the individual fruits are more uniformly round. They work best for carvers who like to start out by using a stencil.
The Atlantic Giants are the big ones, often weighing more than 400 pounds and Haskell said he grew one that weighed in at 580 pounds. The Atlantic Giants are better for carvers who go free hand all the way, he said.
The planting is done by hand in June and the fruits set — flowers growing out of the vines — in July. They grow quickly and harvesting is done in October.
Two flowers grow per fruit, one male and one female. The female flower becomes the pumpkin after bees do their thing going from male to female.
Haskell, whose family has owned the farm for more than 100 years, said he tries to get four or five pumpkins per vine, while the plant itself tries to grow 100 flowers. And he does that in less than two acres of his farm.
He treats for insects and diseases and ultimately hopes to get 500 plants for two carves and some retailers, but he’s just as much into the tradition of “The Carve.”
“My kids have lived through this from the time they were little until they moved away,” he said. “And The Carve is all about the kids.”
Chadds Ford Live will be keeping tabs on the pumpkin crop throughout the growing season and into the night of the Great Pumpkin Carve.
(Top photo: H.G. Haskell finishes fertilizing the soil so the pumpkins can be planted.)
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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