Holiday Colors!

Who wouldn't love browsing through the poinsettias at Janoski's Farm & Greenhouse in Clinton? http://janoskis.com/ Several people were leaving as I got there, hustling their poinsettias into warm cars & vans on a cold & windy day. Today was a sunny day and I timed my trip to coincide with the Steelers game and to miss the crowds. Steeler Sundays ..... you'd have to go back to my October rant on a bye week to understand!

With such a great variety of colors, sizes, and varieties of poinsettias that it's hard to pick out just one. I usually buy 2 pots that each have a red, a pink, & a white plant and put them side by side in a copper boiler. Just turn 2 empty pots upside down and set the poinsettia pots on top of them to lift them to the right height in the copper boiler. Then it's just a matter of what else I like to fit in the other rooms ........ hopefully you've visited a local greenhouse grower for your poinsettias ---- I know that my poinsettias will last until Valentines Day! More info on poinsettias http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/poinsettia/

Mission Accomplished (well almost ......)

Another Sunday in October and another diversion related to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This time my return trip from State College was affected, since driving in on the Parkway East pre-game would not be a good idea! So ....... I came across the area on Rt 422 W and then dropped down to Rt 68. This gave me a chance to include a stop at Brenckle's Farms & Greenhouses as I passed by. Well, I finally completed my pumpkin shopping for the season. I added 3 large pumpkins & a group of gourds to the decorative "One Too Many" pumpkin that I had purchased at the Ambridge Farmers' Market a couple of weeks ago. The pumpkin search is over for this year. I looked all over, but I really wasn't able to find good specimens (ahem) of the heirloom varieties that I like to use. The Long Island Tan Cheese were scarce and smallish this year. The Rouge Vif d' Etampes that I found were nicked & scratched and their stems were broken. The Galeux d'Eysines were completely covered with warts & no pinkish orange was showing. I understand that they must be picked before they get too mature because the warts keep growing.

Picky, picky, picky!

The end result is that this year's display will be much more "conventional". And that's not a bad thing anyway. If you're interested in looking at or trying some of these unusual pumpkin & squash varieties check out Seed Savers Exchange http://www.seedsavers.org/ and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://rareseeds.com/.

Since I use these for display through Thanksgiving, they tend to go soft, but they do not go to waste ....... they're fed to my sheep when we're finished with them! I even have an antique "long handled pumpkin cutter" that we use to break them up so that the sheep can bite into them.

How about these apple gourds? These aren't the little ones, they're 8 -12 inches around. I was impressed with the selection of pumpkins and home grown produce at Brenkle's. It's definitely worth a stop and the price on the pumpkins can't be beaten.