The kids were with me outside the other day, so we decided it was time to collect the pumpkins. They were obviously quite orange and we could not tell how many we had because of the weeds and buckwheat I had planted. I was the one with gloves on, so I got to handle the prickly stems, and the kids helped load by grasping the fruit itself. The type of pumpkin we had this year was not large, but plenty big for the kiddos.

All told, I think we had about 40 pumpkins ranging greatly in size, but the majority look really nice. Mom was surprised to see so many when she got back. The kids were making up and singing their own pumpkin songs. It was kind of funny – caught a snippet of it on video.

Below is a photo from a bit earlier in the season when the buckwheat came into full bloom. I would not recommend planting in the garden vine area like I did here. I did not expect it to grow so tall, was really difficult to ferret out the cucumbers and melons and they did not grow so well – probably hampered by the buckwheat plants. We tried planting it because we had some seed from last year and did not want it to go bad. Buckwheat honey is really dark and rich, and it would be pretty cool to have a monofloural honey super filled with it some day. We did not have enough bees around this area, nor enough buckwheat to really make this happen though. The honeybees were in it, but the bumblebees were especially fond of it.