Pick Your Pumpkins! A Guide On Harvesting Pumpkins

Well, it’s Fall now, and that means a few things.

First, it means that wonderful, beautiful, unbelievably crisp air is finally making a comeback. Second, it means that it’s cider season. Third, and most importantly, it’s the season of our decorative and tasty cucurbits– the wonderful fruits that are as beautiful as they are tasty. These are your cucumbers (obviously), your melons, your squash, and lastly: your pumpkins.

Anyone that has ever harvested fruit of this type can tell you that when you harvest can make all the difference in the world in both taste and texture. However, when it comes to pumpkins this rule becomes something that you can either take or leave. This is because of the dubious distinction that the pumpkin holds as a “decorative” cucurbit. Thus, one of the most important things to consider is whether you’ll want to use the meat of the pumpkins for cooking, or if you’re just going to use them for carving up around Halloween.

For Cooking

Most people assume that a pumpkin is ripe for picking when it finally turns that characteristic orange color. While an orange pumpkin is very likely to be ripe, the fact is that pumpkins can sometimes become ripe before they turn orange. Because of this, it’s smarter to check for a few other signs to make sure your pumpkins are finally ripe.

For example, there is an obvious thud when you give a sharp slap against the side of ripe pumpkins. This isn’t because the pumpkins are empty inside, but rather because the water content of their innards has significantly lowered. This is a really great way to make sure your pumpkins are rip.

Also, hardness is a major indicator that your pumpkins are ready to go. This means hardness in skin and hardness in stem, both of which can be great indicators that your pumpkins are ripe.

For Display

Let’s not forget that there are also a lot of people that wouldn’t eat a pumpkin if it was the last thing on Earth, but they would sure love to decorate some out of their garden. These pumpkins need to be much larger than their cooking cousins, but the principle remains the same. It’s amazing how long you can wait (and how large you can make your pumpkins) to make sure they are the right size, so don’t go nuts and harvest them smaller than you want because you think you’ll be saving the pumpkin.