This Halloween the Second Grade children visited a lovely pumpkin patch at Spring Hill Dairy in Petaluma http://www.springhillcheese.com/ This is a fantastic pumpkin patch: the scenery is gorgeous, the children get to milk a cow, visit with young farm animals, ride a tractor, dig potatoes (they were huge!), and choose a pumpkin in the field. In addition, there is a large straw bale pyramid to climb, a straw bale maze, and free tastes of cheese curd and delicious ice cream.
While we were wandering the fields I came upon a pumpkin sight I have never seen before:
I found several pumpkins that were pumpkin skin on the outside, yet the insides were pure soil.
I asked the farmer accompanying us if he knew why such a thing would occur, but he was similarly mystified. I have looked for explanations on the internet but so far have come up empty.
The pumpkins were clearly rotten, in some cases the skin was dehydrated (below), but in other cases it was still moist and rather thick (see above).
Any ideas out there?
